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Columbia  (Hntoe raft? 
intljeCtipoflta&gork 

THE   LIBRARIES 


Bequest  of 

Frederic  Bancroft 

1860-1945 


MEMOIRS 


REV.  THOMAS  CLELANI),  I>.  D., 


<f  ompilcb  from  bis  pribiitc  pipers. 


A"^ 


& 


l'.v   EDWARD  P.  HUMPHREY, 

AM) 

THOMAS   II.  CLKLAXD. 


C  I  X  C  I  X  N  A  T  I  : 

MOORE,  WTLSTACH,  KEYS  &  00„   Pjhstkim, 

•2  5   WEST   Fourth    St  b  r.  K  T  , 

18    5   0. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 

J.    L.    SMEDLEY, 

In  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Kentucky. 


V&.£ 


MEMOIRS 


REV.  THOMAS  CLELAND,  D.  D. 


CHAP  TEE    I. 

INTRODUCTORY       REMARKS. 

It  is  proposed  to  spread  upon  these  pa  res  a 
brief  memoir  of  the  life  and  labors  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Thomas  Cleland,  of  Kentucky,  lately  de- 
ceased. The  necessary  information  is  supplied 
in  his  private  papers,  but  particularly  in  an  au- 
tobiography which  he  prepared  in  lo48.  This 
was  intended  not  for  the  public  ey e,  but  for  the 
use  of  his  children  and  intimate  friends,  at 
whose  request  it  was  written.  These  friends 
have  deemed  it  proper,  however,  to  publish  such 
parts  of  it  as  are  of  public  interest,  together 
with  such  portions  as  relate  to  his  career  as  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  indicate  the  early 
training  by  which  the  Providence  and  Grace  of 
God  raised  him  up  for  the  work  set  before  him. 
3 


10  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

In  order  to  a  just  appreciation  of  his  charac- 
ter, both  personal  and  professional,  it  is  needful 
to  survey  the  sphere  into  which  his  life  was 
cast.  He  was  a  man  of  his  time :  in  many 
things  the  product  and  type  of  the  region  and 
the  period  in  which  he  spent  his  days.  "What 
was  there,  then,  peculiar  in  the  conditions  un- 
der which  he  came  into  the  service  of  the 
Church? 

The  first  of  these  conditions  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Ken- 
tucky ;  not  too  young  to  be  reckoned  among  the 
second  generation  of  that  remarkable  body  of 
men.  In  the  year  1789,  a  few  months  after  the 
first  inauguration  of  Washington,  the  Cleland 
family  descended  the  river  Ohio,  after  the  man- 
ner and  amidst  the  dangers  of  that  navigation, 
in  a  flat-boat  floating  with  the  stream,  the 
banks  of  which  were  infested  with  hostile  In- 
dians. In  the  following  year  the  family  settled 
in  what  is  now  called  Marion  county,  Thomas 
being  in  the  twelfth  year  of  his  age.  Sixteen 
years  only  before  that  settlement  was  effected, 
James  Harrod  built  his  log  cabin,  perhaps  the 
first  in  the  State,  near  the  spot  now  occupied 
by  Harrodsburg.  Daniel  Boone's  fort  on  the 
river  Kentucky  had  been  erected  not  more  than 
fifteen  years,  and  the  original  block -house  at 
Lexington  about  eight.     The  terrible  siege  of 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  11 

Logan's  fort,  and  the  brilliant  march  of  Clarke 
upon  Vincennes  and  Kaskaskia,  the  disastrous 
expedition  of  Bowman  against  Chillicothc,  and 
the  bloody  but  decisive  battle  of  the  Blue 
Licks,  had  all  occurred  at  periods  the  most  re- 
mote of  which  was  not  more  than  thirteen, 
and  the  nearest  only  eight  years  earlier  than 
the  settlement  of  the  family.  The  sites  now 
occupied  by  the  towns  of  Danville,  Harrods- 
burg,  Lebanon  and  Springfield,  were  marked 
by  a  few  log  dwellings,  or  were  covered  by  the 
unbroken  forests.  Not  more  than  eleven  years 
had  passed  since  the  McAfees,  and  McCouns, 
and  Armstrongs  had  settled  near  the  spot 
where,  seventy  years  ago,  the}7  built  a  house  of 
worship,  which  they  called  Xew  Providence 
Church,  in  acknowledgment  of  God's  protec- 
tion over  their  infant  colony  ;  where,  for  forty- 
five  years,  their  descendants  have  received  the 
word  of  God  from  Dr.  Cleland's  lips,  and 
where  they  have  now  given  him  a  reverent 
burial  with  their  kindred.  Wayne's  treaty 
was  not  formed  until  four  years  after  he  came 
to  the  county,  and  he  was  a  young  man 
of  two  and  twenty  when  the  century  which 
is  now  on  the  wane  began  its  cycle.  His 
life  as  a  pioneer  lad  will  be  described  in 
his  own  words  in  another  part  of  this  volume. 
To  that  manner  of  early  life,  those  who  knew 


12  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

him  will  readily  refer  much  of  his  manhood 
and  force  of  character,  and  much  that  was  at- 
tractive in  him ;  his  vigorous  constitution,  the 
resolution  with  which  he  met  difficulties  and 
opposition,  the  primitive  structure  of  his  dwell- 
ing and  its  appointments;  his  frankness  and 
honesty,  the  simplicity  of  his  manners,  dress 
and  mode  of  thought  and  expression  ;  the  fa- 
miliarity of  his  intercourse  with  all  classes 
of  people;  his  genial  humor;  his  fondness 
for  the  implements  of  frontier  life — the  ax 
and  the  rifle ;  his  hearty  and  unostenta- 
tious hospitality  at  home,  and  his  exemplary 
patience  with  what  his  younger  brethren  find 
intolerable, — bad  roads,  bad  weather,  and  rough 
fare  when  on  duty  abroad. 

He  belonged,  also',  to  the  second  generation 
of  the  pioneer  preachers  of  Kentucky.  Father 
Rice,  Terah  Templin,  Robert  Marshall,  and 
those  immediate  fellow  laborers  among  the 
Presbyterians  were  much  older  than  he  ;  so  were 
Win.  Hickman,  Lewis  Craig  and  John  Gano 
among  the  Baptists,  and  Francis  Poythness, 
Benjamin  Ogden  and  James  Haw  among  the 
Methodists  ;  though  the  most  of  these  were 
alive  when  he  began  his  ministry.  He  was, 
however,  the  cotemporary,  among  the  Presby- 
terians, of  Carey  H.  Allen,  John  P.  Campbell, 
James   Blythe,   John    Lyle,    Robert  Stewart, 


LIFE    OF    I»R.    CLELAND.  13 

Archibald  CameroD  and  Joshua  L.  Wilson. 
Being,  by    a    few  years,  younger   than   any  of 

them,  he  survived  them  all,  and  brought  down 
to  the  present  year,  the  type  of  that  generation 
of  powerful  preachers. 

To  this  we  add,  on  a  wider  survey  of  his 
sphere  in  life,  that  his  cotemporaries  in  other 
professions  were  great  men — great  in  any  com- 
parison. Henry  Clay  and  Felix  Grundy  were 
his  seniors  by  a  year  only ;  Joseph  Hamilton 
Pavies  and  John  Boyle  by  two  years;  John 
Allen,  John  Rowan  and  John  Pope  by  from 
four  to  seven  years;  while  Win.  T.  Barry,  Ben. 
Hardin  and  Benjamin  Mills  were  younger  than 
he.  Very  few  of  these  men,  in  the  active  peri- 
od of  life,  were  professedly  religious,  and  the 
points  of  immediate  contact  between  the  pro- 
fessions of  the  law  and  the  ministry  of  the 
Gospel  were  not  very  numerous.  But  the  in- 
fluences which  those  classes  of  public  men  ex- 
ert on  eaeh  other  through  their  influence  on 
the  community  in  the  bosom  of  which  both 
have  their  spheres,  the  taste  for  forensic  elo- 
quence created  by  great  lawyers  and  politicians 
acting  on  the  pulpit,  and  the  love  of  justice 
and  the  sense  of  responsibility  to  God,  acquir- 
ed from  the  instructions  of  the  nulpit,  re-act- 
ing on  the  tribunal  of  justice  and  the  forum — 


14  LIFE    OP   DR.    CLELAND. 

all  these  considerations  must  be  weighed  in  our 
estimate  of  public  men. 

The  biography  now  before  us  connects  itself, 
also,  with  the  most  decisive  events  which  have 
marked  the  progress  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Kentucky.  His  ministry  of  fifty- 
five  years,  commencing  with  his  licensure  in 
1803,  and  terminating  with  his  death  in  1858, 
is  covered  by  the  period  both  of  rapid  growth 
and  earnest  controversy  in  the  Presbyterianism 
of  Kentucky.  He  participated  as  an  exhorter 
in  the  revival  of  1801-2 ;  and  as  an  ordained 
minister  of  the  Word  in  the  work  of  Grace 
which  was  wrought  in  the  years  beginning  with 
1826,  and  terminating  with  1829.  He  labored 
in  camp  meetings,  which  then  were  approved 
among  the  Presbyterians ;  and  then  in  protract- 
ed and  sacramental  meetings  amons;  all  the 
churches  of  Central  Kentucky ;  and,  indeed,  in 
nearly  all  the  larger  congregations  throughout 
the  State.  As  early  as  1803  he  extended  his 
missionary  tours  as  far  as  Wayne  county,  in 
Kentucky;  and,  in  1805,  he  followed  a  wilder- 
ness trace  as  far  as  Vincennes,  Indiana,  to  preach 
the  word  in  places  never  before  visited  by  a 
Presbyterian  minister.  He  was  actively  en- 
gaged in  nearly  all  the  controversies  and  de- 
bates through  which  the  church  passed  from 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  15 

time  to  time.  He  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
mission whicL  brought  to  a  crisis  the  affairs  of 
the  Cumberland  Presbytery:  he  took  part  in 
the  proceedings  which  resulted  in  the  deposi- 
tion of  Thomas  B.  Craighead,  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Pelagian  party  :  at  the  death  of  John 
B.  Campbell,  who  had  led  the  opposition  to  the 
New  Light  Theology,  he  took  up  his  pen 
against  the  Arian  and  Socinian  errors  of  Bar- 
ton W.  Stone  :  he  entered  warmly  into  the  con- 
troversy with  President  Holley  and  his  friends 
in  the  Transylvanian  University,  and  labored  at 
the  foundation  of  Centre  College  when  that  in- 
stitution became  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  truth :  he  publicly  defended  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Protestant  faith  against  the  Roman 
Catholics,  the  doctrines  of  the  Divine  decrees 
against  the  Arminians,  and  of  the  covenants 
against  the  Baptists,  and  the  doctrines  of 
grace  against  the  reformers;  and,  finally,  he 
shared  in  the  proceedings  which  resulted  in 
the  division  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
1837.  Having  identified  himself  with  what  is 
known  as  the  Constitutional  or  New  School 
General  Assembly,  he  was  one  of  the  most 
venerable  and  trusted  Councilors  of  that 
branch  of  Presbyterianism. 


16  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND, 


CHAPTER    II. 

Autobiography,  Parentage  and  Birth — Removal  to  Maryland, 
to  Kentucky — Settlement  in  Marion  County — His  early 
habits  and  manner  of  life  as  a  Pioneer  and  Hunter — Early 
Education  at  Home,  at  Greensburg,  Pisgah  and  Lexington. 

[We  now  commence  the  history  of  his  life, 
as  he  has  himself  exhibited  it  in  the  autobio- 
graphical sketch  already  described.] 

"  Thomas  Cleland,  the  writer  of  this  brief 
sketch,  was  born  in  Fairfax  county,  Va.,  May 
22,  1778.  About  the  third  or  fourth  year  of 
his  age,  he  removed  with  the  family  into  Mont- 
gomery county,  Md.,  where  he  remained  eight 
years.  In  regard  to  his  ancestry  he  knows  but 
little.  His  father  was  an  humble  mechanic  ;  his 
principal  calling  was  that  of  making  spinning- 
wheels,  but  could  do  almost  any  thing  in  wood 
or  iron,  that  any  one  else  could  do.  He  was 
very  poor  as  to  this  world's  goods,  and  withal 
very  feeble  in  his  physical  constitution.  He 
had  only  an  ordinary  English  education,  but  lie 
possessed  a  good  share  of  common  sense,  and 
his  intellect  was  rather  above  the  common  or- 
der. Beyond  my  father  I  have  no  knowledge 
of  my  paternal  ancestry. 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  17 

My  mother's  maiden  name  was  Richards. 
She  was  a  plain  woman,  a  kind  mother,  and  ii 
domestic  life  rather  excelling  than  otherwise 
in  regard  to  economy  and  good  management 
Father  and  mother  both  were  highly  respected 
by  their  neighbors  and  all  acquaintances.  Nei- 
ther of  them  ever  publicly  professed  religion. 
They  were  very  moral  and  friendly  toward  re- 
ligions people,  and  raised  their  family  in  good 
repute. 

The  principal  object  that  drew  my  father  over 
into  Maryland,  was  to  take  charge  of  an  old 
mill  establishment,  by  lease,  for  eight  years. 
It  was  on  Seneca  creek,  and  owned  by  a  widow 
Pern',  and  was  much  out  of  repair.  Father 
being  an  excellent  mechanic,  soon  repaired  it 
and  gained  a  large  custom,  took  his  wheat  to 
Ellicot's  mills,  laid  out  the  proceeds  in  goods  at 
Baltimore,  and  established  a  small  country  store 
at  home;  and  thus  acquired  a  small  property 
which  enabled  him  to  rise  above  poverty  and 
advance  a  little  in  the  world.  Daring  this  time 
I  went  to  school  to  different  teachers — Timothy 
Sullivan,  Alexander  Penman  and  Geo.  Dyson. 
The  first  two  were  Irish  redemptioners,  as  they 
were  called,  compelled  to  serve  for  a  limited 
time  to  pay  the  expense  of  their  passage  across 
the  ocean.  The  latter  was  an  Englishman. 
Besides  the  common  reading,  he  made  us  mem- 


18  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

orize  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  Apostle's  creed.  The  Old  and 
New  Testaments  were  read  as  schools  books  ; 
and  here  I  may  say  I  received  my  earliest  im- 
pressions, though  very  feeble  indeed,  by  this 
course  at  school.  The  teacher  was  himself  an 
Episcopalian,  and  my  father's  prepossessions 
were  that  way  also.  I  am  confirmed  in  this 
impression  from  what  I  have  heard  him  inti- 
mate, but  more  especially  from  the  fact  that  he 
had  been  prevailed  on  to  have  his  children 
down  to  my  sister  Mary  below  me,  "  Chris- 
tened" as  it  was  called,  by  an  Episcopalian 
clergyman,  who  occasionally  visited  the  family. 

[It  has  been  already  observed  that  his  early 
life,  as  a  pioneer  of  the  region  where  he  spent 
the  most  of  his  days,  exerted  a  controlling  in- 
fluence in  the  formation  of  his  character.  The 
graphic  skill  with  which  he  describes  this  part 
of  his  career  indicates  the  impression  which  it 
made  upon  not  only  his  memory,  but  his  man- 
hood.] 

In  the  fall  of  1789,  father  made  his  arrange- 
ments to  remove  to  Kentucky,  Washington 
county,  where  he  had  procured  an  entry  of  500 
acres  of  forest  land.  My  maternal  grandmother 
resided  near  Red  Stone,  as  it  was  then  called, 
on  the  Monongahela  river.  He  started  Sep- 
tember 23,  and  arrived  October  9,  nearly  two 


LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND.  19 

months,  and  there  remained  until  father  built  a 
flat-boat,  in  which  to  descend  the  Ohio  river. 
"We  left  the  last  day  of  November ;  I  was  in 
my  twelfth  year,  and  on  account  of  a  recent 
illness  had  to  be  carried  to  the  boat.  The  de- 
scent of  the  river  in  these  times  was  perilous, 
frequent  attacks  were  made  by  the  Indians  on 
boats  descending,  attended  sometimes  with 
severe  loss  of  life  and  property.  We  ascertained 
that  they  had  made  frequent  attempts  of  this 
kind.  Boats  were  fired  on  both  before  and 
behind  us.  But  a  kind  providence  interposed 
in  our  behalf — being  safely  conducted  until  we 
reached  a  small  stream  called  Goose  creek,  a 
short  distance  above  Louisville,  Ky.  I  was 
sick  the  whole  time,  confined  to  my  bed,  but 
soon  after  recovered. 

We  were  compelled,  for  want  of  better  ac- 
commodation, to  remain  in  our  boat  two  weeks. 
Afterward,  a  small  cabin,  about  twelve  feet 
square,  was  obtained,  a  few  miles  out  from  the 
river,  belonging  to  Col.  Richard  Taylor,  father 
of  the  renowned  hero  of  Monterey  and  Buena 
Vista.  This  residence  was  in  the  edge  of  a 
dense  cane-brake.  Here  we  were  saluted  every 
night  with  the  howling  of  wolves. 

In  the  meantime  father  had  gone  to  look  for 
his  land,  and,  if  possible,  to  have  erected  a 
hasty   building   for   our   accommodation.     He 


20  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

reached  the  neighborhood,  examined  the  pre 
mises,  selected  the  spot,  engaged  the  workmen 
and  then  was  taken  with  a  violent  attack  o 
pleurisy,  a  disease  to  which  he  was  liable,  an< 
which  ultimately  ended  his  days.     He  was  ab 
sent  more  than  six  weeks  without  our  knowing 
the  cause.  The  family  were  in  painful  suspense. 
The  Taylor  family,  old  and  young,  were  very 
hospitable  and  kind  to  us.     William,  Hancock, 
and  "  Little  Zack,"  as  General  Taylor  was  then 
called,  were  my  playmates.     Mrs.  Taylor  con- 
ceived a  great  fondness  for    my  mother,  and 
treated  her  as  a  sister. 

At  length  father  returned,  very  feeble  in- 
deed;  we  had  well-nigh  lost  him.  About  the 
last  of  April  we  started  for  our  new  home,  at 
which  we  soon  arrived  in  safety.  Every  thing 
was  new,  rough  and  wild.  A  large  cabin,  with 
open  cracks  and  puncheon  floors,  homely  poles 
with  boards  across  for  ceiling,  a  tall  dense  forest 
all  around,  bears,  wolves,  with  all  manner  of 
venomous  reptiles  in  profusion.  There  was  no 
time  to  be  lost.  Owing  to  father's  illness  and 
late  arrival,  the  season  was  far  advanced.  The 
mattock,  the  ax  and  maul  were  put  speedily 
into  operation;  father  having  a  delicate  consti- 
tution, could  not  labor  out,  or  do  any  thing  in 
the  way  of  farming.  But  there  was  one  who 
had  been  an  inmate  of  the  family  some  eight  or 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  21 

ten  years,  a  maternal  ancle,  familiarly  called 
"  Uncle  Sammy"  (Richards),  He  had  been 
brought  up  a  farmer.  lie  was  our  leader.  The 
ground  was  laid  out,  and  at  it  we  went  day  and 
night.  I  was  from  a  child  fond  of  an  ax — al- 
ways my  favorite  tool.  Our  force  was  my 
ancle  and  myself,  two  colored  boys  and  two 
colored  women.  Up  came  the  grubs,  down 
went  the  saplings  and  undergrowth.  Several 
acres  were  covered  with  the  brush,  the  result  of 
the  days  of  chopping  and  grubbing.  At  night 
the  fires  sent  forth  light  all  around  from  the 
brush  heaps  burning  here  and  there  as  fast  as 
we  could  put  and  pile  on.  This  was  amuse- 
ment, as  well  as  work,  and  had  to  be  continued 
in  order  to  keep  pace  with  mattock  and  ax, 
until  ten  or  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  Late  in 
the  season  as  it  was  we  made  out  to  inclose  and 
cultivate  twelve  acres  of  ground.  Every  blade, 
top  and  ear,  were  saved,  and  carefully  secured, 
which,  with  pumpkins,  and  a  cellar  well  stored, 
with  potatoes,  we  made  quite  a  flattering  ap- 
pearance for  persons  unaccustomed  to  the  arts 
and  toils  of  farming.  These  were  indeed  times 
that  tried  men's  souls,  and  bodies  too.  I  was 
now  twelve  years  old,  May,  1790.  Here  com- 
menced a  new  era  in  my  juvenile  life,  every 
thing  to  do  to  obtain  a  livelihood — the  forest  to 


22  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAXD. 

clear  away,  buildings  to  erect,  the  hand-mill  to 
push  around  to  obtain  bread.  Sometimes  1 
was  mounted  on  a  three-bushel  bag  of  corn  to 
take  to  the  nearest  mill,  which  was  thirteen 
miles  distant,  three  miles  below  where  Spring- 
field now  stands,  then  an  unbroken  forest. 

I  soon  became  from  necessity,  as  well  as  from 
inclination,  an  active,  fierce,  and  persevering 
adventurer,  after  wolves,  bears,  etc.  For  feats 
of  activity,  such  as  jumping,  racing  and  climb- 
ing trees,  my  equal  was  not  to  be  found.  Xo 
one  had  more  ambition  to  excel  in  log-rolling, 
horse-racing,  corn-husking  races,  than  myself. 
For  my  hardy  endurance,  and  well-known 
strength,  I  carried  the  soubriquet  of  "  Pine 
Knot"  and  "  Jackscrew"  In  all  these  danger- 
ous positions,  in  house  raisings,  athletic  exer- 
cises, and  night  huntings,  etc.,  I  was  wonder- 
fully preserved  by  an  unseen  hand,  reserved,  I 
trust,  for  noble  deeds,  which  at  that  time  had 
not  the  shadow  of  an  existence  in  my  thought- 
less and  untutored  mind. 

Energy  and  perseverance  were  two  distin- 
guishing traits  in  my  character.  I  vaunted  my- 
self upon  my  external  morality,  and  had  the 
approbation  of  parents,  neighbors,  and  all.  As 
to  my  early  religious  impressions,  the  removal 
to  this  country,  the  novelties  continually  pre- 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  23 

sented,  and  the  avocations  in  which  I  was 
nceessarily  engaged,  left  no  room  for  their 
operation. 

[His  fondness  for  the  diversions  of  the  woods 
was  a  marked  peculiarity  in  his  taste  through 
the  whole  of  his  life.  This  peculiarity  was 
due  to  the  sports  of  his  youth  in  a  country  full 
of  game.  Those  which  he  describes  below  re- 
late to  the  year  1793-4,  when  he  was  only  fif- 
teen or  sixteen  years  of  age.] 

I  resumed  more  vigorously  than  ever  the 
various  avocations  and  pursuits  of  the  day — 
farming,  log-rolling,  and  hunting  wild  animals, 
coons,  foxes,  wild  cats  and  wolves.  The  two 
latter  were  very  mischievous,  depredating  upon 
our  sheep,  pigs,  etc.  In  the  course  of  some  two 
or  three  years  I  had  trapped  in  wolf-pens  more 
than  a  dozen  large,  full-grown  wolves,  and  in 
one  way  and  another,  twice  as  many  of  the 
wild-cat  race,  and  smaller  game  without  num- 
ber. Both  from  necessity  and  inclination,  I 
had  declared  war  against  the  whole  concern. 
Ambition,  energy,  perseverance  and  determina- 
tion, carried  me  on  regardless  of  danger. 

Never  was  I  alarmed  by  these  animals  but 
once.  It  was  early  in  March,  the  moon  was 
shining  brightly,  the  air  was  soft  and  balmy. 
While  I  was  standing  quietly  waiting  for  the 
return  of  my  dogs,  I  saw  three  large  wolves 


24  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

coming  directly  toward  me.  They  came  within 
less  than  ten  steps  of  me.  Hearing  the  noise 
of  them  approach  among  the  leaves  and  sticks, 
the  fleetest  dog  sprang  right  toward  them.  I 
saw  the  foremost  spring  to  one  side,  while  the 
other  two  fled  backward,  with  all  the  dogs  in 
full  pursuit,  Being  alone,  I  feared  the  one 
that  had  been  left  behind  might  attack  me,  I 
stood  with  my  ax,  the  only  weapon  I  had, 
ready,  my  heart  palpitating,  and  my  eyes  all 
around  me;  but  I  saw  him  not.  The  dogs,  on 
their  return,  gave  him  a  second  chase,  and  after 
returning  I  made  all  haste  homeward,  the  dogs 
all  ahead,  I  could  not  keep  one  behind  me,  but 
kept  looking  back,  not  knowing  but  that  I 
might  be  pursued.  One  of  the  dogs  having 
gone  aside  from  the  road,  I  passed  him,  walk- 
ing briskly.  He  came  in  behind,  now  close  up 
to  me.  As  I  looked  back,  I  was  sure  it  was  a 
wolf.  The  ax  is  drawn  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  with  earnest  cry  for  the  dogs,  "  Here,  here, 
here."  But  before  the  blow  was  given,  I  was 
happily  relieved  by  the  whining  voice  and 
wagging  tail  of  one  of  my  favorite  dogs.  This 
panic  was  more  agitating  than  the  first.  But 
I  arrived  home,  and  crept  softly  into  bed,  and 
made  no  report  of  my  adventure  to  the  family. 
On  another  occasion  the  dogs  treed  a  wild- 
cat early  in  the  night.    Thinking  it  to  be  a  fox, 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  25 

I  went  up  to  make  it  jump  off,  that  the  dogs 
might  have  a  race.  But  in  this  I  was  mistaken  ; 
it  was  a  wild-cat.  It  growled  fearfully,  and 
came  at  me.  I  knocked  it  off  with  my  fist,  it 
sprang  to  the  ground  and  eluded  the  grasp  of 
the  dogs.  They  ran  it  almost  out  of  hearing, 
but  returned  still  in  chase.  It  treed  not  far 
distant.  I  sent  a  small  negro  boy  I  had  with 
me  for  my  shot-gun.  He  came,  and  I  fired  at 
it  twice.  I  climbed  up  again,  and  as  it  came 
toward  me  I  again  knocked  it  off.  He  again 
eluded  the  dogs,  and  took  another  tree  larger 
and  higher  than  either  of  the  preceding.  I 
again  fired  at  him,  but  to  no  purpose.  Again 
reloaded,  then  felled  a  smaller  tree  against  the 
one  he  was  on,  climbed  up  till  near  him,  I  shot, 
he  fell.  I  triumphed  and  returned  home  at 
midnight.  It  was  the  largest  animal  of  the 
race  that  had  ever  been  seen. 

[The  account  which  he  gives  of  his  school- 
boy days  is  interesting,  as  indicating  the  means 
of  education  which  were  in  use  at  that  early 
period  in  the  history  of  Kentucky.  In  the 
summer  of  '92  or  '93,  his  father  sent  him  and 
his  youngest  sister  to  school,  six  or  seven  miles 
distant,  going  on  the  Monday  and  returning  on 
the  Friday  of  each  week.  Two  or  three  years 
afterward,  when  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his 
age  he  resumed  his  course  of  study.] 
4 


26  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

But  now  commences  a  new  era  in  my  juve- 
nile life.  My  father  having  seven  children  to 
provide  for,  and  being  in  moderate  circum- 
stances, not  only  from  this  consideration,  but 
also  from  flattering  representations  made  to 
him  by  several  young  lawyers  of  his  acquaint- 
ance, that  a  fine  harvest  for  that  profession  was 
in  full  prospect  in  Kentucky,  was  induced  to 
select  me  for  that  profession,  thinking,  if  I  suc- 
ceeded in  that  calling,  I  could  more  readily 
support  myself  in  future  domestic  life.  With 
this  object  in  view,  and  having  previously  made 
the  necessary  arrangement  for  books,  boarding, 
etc.,  I  set  out  with  him  for  Greensburg,  county 
seat  of  Green  county,  on  first  day  of  January, 
1795.  We  arrived  late  in  the  evening,  and 
lodged  with  Mr.  John  Allen,  the  place  selected 
for  my  boarding.  I  was  now  in  my  eighteenth 
year.  I  was  first  under,  the  superintendence  of 
Jas.  Allen,  Esq.,  who  was  a  young  lawyer  and 
clerk  of  the  county.  With  him  I  commenced 
Rudiman's.  Latin  grammar,  which  I  went 
through  in  two  weeks,  including  the  revision. 
During  my  stay  there,  some  eight  or  nine 
months,  I  read  all  the  Latin  authors  commonly 
used  in  those  days,  amounting  to  nine  books, 
from  Corderius  to  Odd  inclusive.  I  also  com- 
mitted to  memory  several  lengthy  orations — 
Cicero  against  Verres,  Cataline,  etc.     These  I 


LIFE   OF    DR.    CLELAND.  27 

sometime?,  for  amusement,  as  well  as  practice, 
delivered  at  the  top  of  my  voice  from  some  of 
the  tallest  poplar  saplings,  which  yet  remained 
on  the  unimproved  lots  of  the  newly  laid  off 
town.  The  spot  had  been  formerly  cultivated, 
but"  long  since  abandoned  on  account  of  the 
Indians,  and  now  had  grown  up  into  a  dense 
and  flourishing  thicket,  or  young  forest.  From 
this  elevated  position  my  oratory  could  be  heard 
all  over  this  new  and  growing  village.  The 
orations  were  selected  from  the  "  Art  of  Speak- 
ing," a  book  of  the  12  mo.  size.  I  memorized 
from  two  to  three  pagesof  this  book  from  day- 
light to  breakfast  in  the  morning:. 

Time  rolls  on.  The  spring  of  '96  arrives. 
My  eighteenth  year  is  closed.  My  studies  must 
be  resumed.  The  "  Kentucky  Academy/'  re- 
cently established  at  Pisgah,  Woodford  county, 
is  my  next  place  of  location.  At  this  Institu- 
tion I  spent  eighteen  months  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  portion  of  my  early  life. 
Here  I  entered  upon  a  most  ardent  and  perse- 
vering pursuit  after  literary  acquirements. 
During  all  the  time  of  my  sojourn  here,  I  pur- 
sued my  literary  studies  with  uncommon  ardor 
and  industry.  My  candle  was  often  burning 
until  12  or  1  o'clock  at  night,  after  all  had 
long  laid  down  to  sleep.  Many  nights  I  slept 
not  more  than  four  hours.     Never  did  anv  one 


28  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

read  with  more  avidity,  a  novel  or  romance, 
than  I  did  the  story  of  Dido  and  Eneas  in  Vir- 
gil. I  sometimes  got  400  lines  at  a  lesson.  I 
read  the  Odes  of  Horace  in  nine  days,  includ- 
ing the  revision.  Passed  rapidly  through  the 
"  Satires,"  "  Cicero's  Orations; "  then  the  Greek 
Testament,  Lucian's  Dialogues,  and  then  was 
forwarded  with  the  foremost  class,  which  had 
just  commenced  the  second  book  of  Xenephon's 
Cycropcedia,  which  author  was  as  far  as  I  ever 
went  in  the  dead  languages. 


LIFE   OF   DR.    CLBLAND.  29 


CHAPTER    III. 

Early  Religious  Impressions— At  Twelve  years  of  Age  in 
Maryland— At  Fourteen  at  Home— At  Eighteen  in  Greens- 
burg— At  Nineteen  at  Pisgah — At  Twenty-two  at  Lexington 
— Sudden  Death  of  His  Father. 

After  spending  twelve  or  fourteen  months  at 
Pisgah,  he  found  his  health  giving  way  under 
his  severe  course  of  study,  and  returned  to  his 
labor  on  the  farm  and  to  his  sports  in  the  woods. 
In  the  autumn  of  1799,  when  he  was  in  the 
twenty-second  year  of  his  age,  he  went  to  Lex- 
ington to  finish  his  education,  at  the  Transyl- 
vania University.  But  his  studies  were,  in 
the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  suddenly  terminat- 
ed by  the  death,  first  of  his  mother,  then  soon 
afterwards  of  his  father.  These  events  chang- 
ed the  course  of  his  life.  But  it  is  necessary, 
at  this  point,  to  go  back  in  the  narrative,  and 
trace  the  progress  of  his  religious  experience 
from  the  beginning  up  to  the  close  of  his  resi- 
dence at  the  university,  and  the  death  of  his 
parents. 

[Of  his  early  religious  impressions  he  thus 
writes :] 

Of  these  I  was  not  wholly  destitute  in  those 


30  LIFE   OF   DR.   CLELAND. 

clays ;  but  how  to  account  for  their  origin  and 
character  I  have  found  no  small  difficulty.      I 
was  considered  a  retiring  and  unassuming  back- 
woods boy.     Nothing    rash,  vile,  outbreaking 
or  immoral   in  my  character.     From  what  I 
read  at  school,  and    incidentally  learned  else- 
where, I  believed  in  a  judgment  to  come  ;  ever- 
lasting happiness  and  misery.     "  Eternity  "  for- 
ever, " Endless   duration"   were   fearful  terms, 
and  terrible  for  me  to  think  upon.     I  knew  no 
religion  but  external  morality ;  and,  because  I 
did  not  swear  and  do  many  other  wicked  things, 
I  considered  myself  in   a  tolerably  safe  condi- 
tion.    Yea,  I  thought  I  kept  my  accounts  with 
my  Maker  pretty  well  squared  up.     I  knew  no 
more  of  utter  sinfulness — the  need  of  regener- 
ation— the   agency  of  the    Spirit — the  need  of 
atonement — the  mediation  of  Christ,  etc.,  etc., 
than  a  dark,  untutored  Indian.     The  thought 
that  I  might  die  suddenly  ;  that  death  might 
unexpectedly  overtake  me  before  I  had  straight- 
ened up  every  thing,  was   perplexing.     How 
I  got  the  impression,  I  can  not  tell ;  yet,  I  firm- 
ly believed  that,    if   any  thing  should   remain 
against  me  unadjusted,  and  father  or  mother, 
or  any  one  else,  would  pray  for  me  after  death, 
all  would  be   right,  and  no  charge  would   be 
against  me  at  the  day  of  judgment.     But  here 
asrain  I  became  unsettled  and  doubtful.     I  was 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELANI). 

not  assured  that  father  or  mother  ever  prayed 
at  all  ;  or,  if  they  did,  possibly  I  might  be  for- 
gotten, and  then  all  was  over  with  me.  I  could 
not  do  the  work  myself,  nor  by  any  means 
awaken  their  attention  and  sympathies  in  my 
behalf.  Here  then  was  the  crisis, — the  turning 
point.  What  course  should  I  pursue  ?  Why, 
just  this  ;  I  must  be  good — altogether  a  good  man 
before  I  die.  But  how  to  be  that  good  man, — 
who  is  he  ?  Where  is  he  to  be  found  ?  If  I  be- 
come a  lawyer,  will  that  do  ?  Iso,  all  lawyers 
go  to  hell  [under  a  curse — "  Wo  unto  lawyers.'7 
So  thought  I  then.  What  of  doctors?  Never 
knew  but  one — the  one  who  doctored  me  for  the 
bite  of  a  mad  cat — the  scars  of  which  still  re- 
main. The  doctor  may  be  a  good  man,  but  it  is 
very  uncertain.  A  preacher !  ah !  that  is  the  man, 
the  very  ma  n  for  me.  No  mistake  about  his  be- 
ing a  good  man.  The  very  act  of  preaching  is 
proof  certain  as  holy  writ,  that  he  is  a  good  man. 
No  man  would  preach ;  nay,  no  man  could  preach, 
unless  he  was  a  good  man.  So  I  concluded  to 
make  sure  of  the  matter.  I  must  somehow  get 
to  be  a  preacher,  in  order  to  make  sure  of  the 
good  man  when  I  come  to  die.  From  that  day 
singular  as  it  may  be,  I  never  wavered,  never 
hesitated  one  moment,  as  to  what  I  would 
choose,  were  I  ever  called  into  public  life. 
Here  I  find  the  origin,  the  very  gem,  or  per- 


32  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

haps  the  embryo  existence  of  my  earliest 
thoughts  and  impressions ;  erroneous  as  they 
were,  that  first  directed  and  fixed  my  deter- 
mination towards  the  ministry. 

[This  statement  appears  to  relate  to  the  period 
of  early  youth,  before  the  removal  of  the  fam- 
ily to  Kentucky,  and  consequently  while  he  was 
not  more  than  twelve  years  of  age,  after  the 
settlement  of  the  family  in  Marion  county.] 

In  the  summer  of  1792  or  1793,  father  sent 
rue  and  my  youngest  sister  to  school,  about  six 
miles  distant,  to  a  Methodist  preacher,  Rev. 
Thomas  Kyle,  with  whom  we  boarded  from 
Monday  till  Friday  evening,  weekly.  On  a 
certain  day  in  every  month  there  came  along 
the  Circuit  Rider,  who,  by  request  of  our  teach- 
er, heard  the  pupils  rehearse  a  small  catechism 
at  the  close  of  the  forenoon  session.  This  he 
did  as  we  stood  in  spelling  ranks.  I  stood  head 
uniformly,  had  memorized  the  catechism,  and 
answered  with  the  rest.  He  then  proceeded 
to  prayer  and  exhortation,  with  great  vehe- 
mence and  effervescence,  until  nearly  the  whole 
female  part  of  the  school  became  in  a  perfect 
uproar,  crying  for  mercy,  exhorting  careless 
brothers  and  some  others  of  the  male  sex  to  re- 
pent and  give  up  their  hearts  to  God. 

The  scene  lasted,  perhaps,  for  one  hour,  when 
all  became  still  as  ever.     The  preachers  retir- 


LIFE   OF   DR.    OLELAND.  33 

ed  ;  our  dinners  were  eaten;  playtime  was  at- 
tended to  in  the  usual  style,  so  that  no  one 
would  have  known  that  any  tiling  unusual  had 
occurred.  Father  hearing  of  these  things,  and 
not  liking  the  course  pursued,  requested  and 
obtained  permission  to  withdraw  sister  and  my- 
self on  these  occasions.  This  was  granted  with 
some  reluctance.  I  withdrew  to  some  retired 
place,  aud  either  read  or  cyphered,  during  the 
religious  exercise  which  increased  in  noise  and 
vehemence.  When  over,  all  was  lively  and 
gay  as  ever.  On  my  return  to  the  school-house, 
I  was  hailed  with  the  jocular,  sportive  lan- 
guage, "Here  comes  the  lost  sheep,''  " here 
comes  the  prodigal,"  etc. 

After  the  usual  playtime  was  over,  I  was  in- 
structed by  the  teacher  (being  furthest  ad- 
vanced) to  open  school,  and  superintend  until 
his  return,  which  was  after  three  o'clock,  P.  M., 
that  being  the  hour  to  which  his  fast  extended, 
according  to  the  catechism  we  had  been  taught. 
One  question  was,  "  How  often  did  the  ancient 
Christians  fast  ?  "  Ans, — "  Every  Wednesday 
and  Friday,  till  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon." 

The  girls,  increasing  in  their  zeal,  held, 
through  the  summer,  any  playtime,  religious 
meetings  in  the  woods,  sometimes  in  one 
place  and  sometimes  in  another.  You  might 
hear  them  at  the  top  of  their  voices  nearly  a 


34  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

mile.  One  or  two  lead  in  prayer,  until  all  join- 
ed in  the  outcry.  Sometimes  they  were  inter- 
rupted by  the  howling  of  the  wolf;  or,  more 
likely,  some  of  the  biped  race  aping  the  quad- 
ruped for  his  own  amusement.  Then  they 
would  scamper  like  an  affrighted  flock  of  sheep, 
until  they  reached  the  school-house.  At  length, 
toward  autumn,  they  occupied  the  school- 
house  exclusively ;  the  boys  having  received  or- 
ders to  leave,  and  not  interrupt  them.  The  au- 
tumn approaching— the  days  shorter  and  cool- 
er— the  novelty  ceasing,  the  whole  affair  died 
away,  leaving  no  trace  of  real  piety,  and  not 
one  to  join  the  church  by  public  profession. 
During  all  this  time  I  had  but  very  faint,  if  any 
religious  impressions  at  all.  I  was  opposed  to 
all  this  religious  parade,  chiefly  because  my  fa- 
ther was :  sometimes  I  thought  on  the  subjects 
of  former  days,  and  occasionally  I  attempted  to 
pray,  but  could  use  no  form  or  words  but  the 
Lord's  prayer. 

[During  his  residence  in  Greensburg,  his  con- 
science was  considerably  quickened.] 

As  for  my  religious  impressions  during 
this  period,  they  were  few  and  feeble,  and  far 
between.  There  was  no  stated  preaching,  every 
thing  was  new  and  wild;  all  hurry  and  confu- 
sion, as  is  common  in  new  settlements.  'Twas 
here  I  first  saw  and  heard  Rev.  John  Howe, 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  35 

vrith  whom  I  was  much  pleased  ;  he  had  recent* 
ly  been  licensed.  Samuel  Findlay,  in  passing, 
also  preached  a  sermon  or  two.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  received  any  special  benefit  from  the  ser- 
mons of  either  of  these  men.  Still,  I  had  some 
impressions  privately.  I  was  induced,  some- 
times, on  Sabbath  days,  feeling  lonesome,  and 
not  otherwise  employed,  to  retire  far  away  in- 
to the  woods,  and  there  kneel  down  in  some 
deep  sink-hole,  so  called,  and  there  make  a  futile 
effort  at  prayer.  Xo  sooner  was  this  determin- 
ation made,  no  matter  where  I  was,  I  thought 
any  one  seeing  me  would  suspect  in  a  moment 
what  I  was  after,  and  whither  I  was  going.  In 
order  to  divert  any  such  thought,  I  would  wan- 
der about  and  about,  halt  a  little  now  and  then, 
pick  up  sticks  and  pebbles,  and  carelessly  throw 
them  from  me,  until  I  was  entirely  out  of 
sight.  And  often  I  had  gotten  to  the  selected 
spot,  and  on  my  knees  trying  to  pray,  it  did 
seem  to  me  almost  certain  that  some  one  was 
standing  just  above  and  looking  down  upon 
me.  Under  this  strong  impression  or  tempta- 
tion, I  was  constrained  to  stop  praying,  and 
open  my  eyes  and  look  all  about  to  see  if  it 
were  not  really  so.  Here  was,  as  I  have  long 
since  believed,  the  good  Spirit's  influence  mov- 
ing and  drawing  me  toward  that  which  is 
good,  wdiile  the  Evil  One  was  busily  engaged 


36  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

with   his   temptations  to    destroy   the   whole. 

I  returned  at  the  close  of  autumn,  as  before 
observed,  to  spend  the  winter  at  home.  The 
object  of  my  father,  in  preparing  me  for 
the  law,  thus  far  had  not  been  realized.  The 
motive  and  determination  to  be  a  preacher, 
should  I  ever  be  called  to  public  life,  before  re- 
lated, remained  unaltered.  Yet,  I  was  wholly 
in  the  dark  as  respects  my  natural  state, 
and  the  necessity  of  an  inward  spiritual  change. 
I  was  always,  for  some  reason  or  other,  shy 
and  reserved,  in  the  company  of  my  father; 
but  not  so  with  my  mother.  She  knew  all  my 
mind,  and  communicated  to  father  my  notions 
on  the  subject  of  the  ministry.  He  was  entire- 
ly acquiescent,  left  me  to  my  own  choice,  had 
no  objection  to  my  becoming  a  preacher, pro- 
vided I  could  make  a  good  one.  Though  not  a 
religious,  he  was  a  reading,  intellectual  man, 
and  an  excellent  judge  of  what  was  called  good 
preaching." 

[While  at  the  Pisgah  school,  in  the  nine- 
teenth year  of  his  age,  he  says  ;] 

My  religious  course  and.  feelings  were 
greatly  changed.  I  found  myself  boarding  in 
a  family  where  nearly  all  professed  religion. 
The  heads  of  the  family,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dunlap, 
two  of  their  sons  and  three  daughters,  were 
members    of  Pisgah    church.     Our  teacher — 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  37 

.James  Moore,  and  sub-teacher — John  Thomp- 
son, now  the  Rev.  J.  Thompson,  of  Crawfords- 
ville,  Ind.,  also  were  hoarders,  and  professors  of 
the  same  denomination  ;  they  were  all  Presbyte- 
rians. These  two  alternated  with  our  landlord 
in  family  worship,  morning  and  evening.  I 
had  not  been  there  more  than  two  weeks, 
when  there  was  held,  at  Pisgah,  a  sacra- 
mental meeting;  Rev.  James  Blythe  was  pas- 
tor. I  saw  the  young  people  of  our  family  go 
to  the  communion  table.  It  was  a  new  thing 
to  me,  I  had  long  since  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  young  people  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
sacrament,  that  it  was  intended  for  old  people 
only.  The  young  people  were  too  unsettled, 
not  good  enough  for  such  a  solemn  place ;  in- 
deed, I  had  heard  such  addresses  preparatory  to 
administering  the  communion,  called  fencing  the 
table,  as  seemed  to  me  to  debar  almost  any  one 
from  that  holy  place.  I  had  very  early  settled 
the  matter  in  my  own  mind  that  I  was  too 
young  to  think  it  my  duty  to  be  there ;  but 
now,  for  the  first  time,  I  saw  young  persons  at 
the  table.  There  I  stood,  surprised  and  con- 
victed ;  I  had  not  seen  the  need  of  church 
membership.  Indeed,  I  had  fixed  it  in  my 
mind,  that  we  could  live  as  well,  and  go  to 
heaven  just  as  readily,  out  of  the  church  as  in 
it.     This  wras  quite  a  resting-place.     External 


38  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

morality,  without  an  interest  in  Christ,  was  all 
the  religion  I  knew  any  thing  about ;  or,  in- 
deed, all  that  I  thought  was  necessary.  But 
now,  I  was  as  one  newly  wakened  up.  I  com- 
menced a  regular  course  of  seeking  religion  ;  at- 
tended public  worship  on  every  Sabbath; 
prayed  in  secret,  or  rather  attempted  to  do 
so,  every  morning  and  evening  without  fail. 
My  heart  was  hard,  could  feel  no  tenderness, 
could  shed  no  tears.  Nor  did  I  receive,  as  well 
as  I  can  remember,  the  least  benefit  from  our 
preacher.  No  one  seemed  to  care  for  my  soul, 
nor  speak  to  me  privately  on  the  subject  of  my 
soul's  salvation.  Such  was  not  the  custom  of 
the  times,  nor  order  of  the  day. 

But  all  saw  that  I  was  serious  and  regular  in 
private  duties  ;  and  I  rather  think,  being  a  fa- 
vorite in  the  family,  that  I  was  considered  as 
good  as  any  of  them.  I  always  asked  a  bless- 
ing at  the  table  when  called  upon.  At  length 
came  on,  one  Sabbath  evening,  a  severe  trial. 
The  three  individuals,  who  led  in  prayer,  hap- 
pened to  be  all  away.  "Will  mother  Dunlap," 
was  the  query  in  my  mind,  "  have  prayers  to- 
night or  not?"  Will  she  pray  herself,  or  call 
on  me  ?  I  am  not  a  member  of  the  Church, 
yet  they  all  seem  to  have  such  confidence  in 
me,  that  I  know  not  how  to  refuse,  if  asked. 
I  had  never  prayed  in  audience  of  any  human 


LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND.  39 

being  that  I  knew  of,  and  how  shall  I  attempt 
such  a  thing-  now?  I  concluded  to  keep  close 
in  my  study,  which  was  up  stairs,  over  the 
dining-room.  If  she  should  prefer  being  alone 
with  the  young  members  of  the  family,  pro- 
vided she  would  pray  herself,  she  might  do  so. 
If  I  am  to  be  present,  she  must  call  or  send  for 
me.  There  I  sat  all  alone,  in  great  anxiety.  I 
heard  the  tread  of  her  feet  below,  when  she 
went  to  the  corner  shelf  for  the  Bible ;  traced 
her  to  the  table  where  she  laid  it,  followed  her 
to  the  foot  of  the  stairs — the  usual  position  of 
the  messenger  bidding  us  to  supper  and  pray- 
ers ;  and  at  the  very  moment  of  anticipation, 
sure  enough,  the  sound  of  her  voice,  calling  me 
by  name,  reached  my  ear.  My  heart  seemed  to 
leap  up  into  my  throat,  almost  to  suffocation. 
I  answered,  but  sat  a  moment  to  stay  my  agi- 
tation. 

I  then  descended  to  the  room;  she  was  stand- 
ing in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  looking  to  catch 
my  eye,  while  I  entered  with  my  head  inclined 
forward,  looking  on  either  side  for  a  seat.  In 
lifting  up  my  head  a  little,  I  caught  her  eye. 
With  an  easy  manner  and  gentle  motion  of  her 
head,  she  directed  my  attention  to  the  "  stand 
where  lay  the  old  family  Bible."  I  halted  a 
moment;  and  then,  with  solemn  face,  proceed- 
ed, and  seated  myself  in  the  chair — a  position 


40  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAXD. 

I  never  occupied  before.  I  selected  the  21st 
chapter  of  John,  and  one  of  the  longest  hymns 
in  Watts,  in  order  to  familiarize  the  service 
somewhat  before  I  could  reach  the  most  trying 
part  of  it.  I  was  fond  of  singing,  and  had  a 
clear  voice,  but  now  it  faltered,  and  I  choked  a 
little  once  or  twice.  One  of  the  young  ladies, 
an  excellent  singer,  helped  me  out.  The  hymn, 
long  as  it  was,  seemed  to  close  too  soon.  The 
hardest  part  of  the  service  now  came  on.  We 
bowed  before  the  family  altar,  I  went  through 
as  well  as  I  could,  but  how,  I  can  not  tell.  I 
did  not  stop,  or  stick  by  the  way.  ~No  doubt  it 
was  a  very  feeble  effort,  but  it  was  a  breaking 
of  the  ice ;  it  was  the  severest  trial  I  ever  en- 
countered in  any  religious  performance.  In 
family  or  social  worship,  or  in  any  after  trials 
before  Presbytery,  or  in  the  pulpit,  I  never  felt 
intimidated  before  the  face  of  man  in  religious 
services  after  that. 

I  frequently  attended  sacramental  meetings, 
in  neighboring  congregations.  Was  fond  of 
hearing  Rev.  Messrs.  Marshall  and  Welch 
preach.  Applied  to  Mr.  Blythe  for  advice  re- 
garding the  Lord's  Supper.  Finding  that  I 
had  the  ministry  in  view,  he  thought  I  had 
better  mature  the  matter  well,  and  defer  it  a 
little  longer  till  I  myself  could  be  better  satis- 
fied— that  it  was   of  great   importance  to  be 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  41 

well  grounded,  with  as  full  an  assurance  as 
possible  in  view  of  such  a  responsible  under- 
taking.    Yet,  he  stated  that  he  felt  it  his  duty 

and  privilege  to  give  me  a  "token  "  of  admit- 
tance at  that  time,  if  I  insisted.  So  far  from 
that,  however,  I  was  perfectly  willing  to  defer 
the  matter  for  the  present.  Thus  I  continued 
without  any  distinct,  sensible  change  of  my 
views  and  feelings  till  I  left,  in  the  fall  of  '99, 
about  the  middle  of  my  twentieth  year.  That 
I  had  become  considerably  in  advance  of  what 
I  formerly  was  in  regard  to  my  religious  feel- 
ings, duties  and  desires,  as  well  as  knowledge, 
there  can  be  no  question,  still  I  was  much  in 
the  dark.  I  needed  instruction,  especially  on 
the  nature  and  evidences  of  Christian  experi- 
ence. I  am  better  satisfied  now,  at  this  distant 
period,  that  I  was  under  the  gracious  influence 
and  manuductionof  the  Spirit,  silently  and  gra- 
dually drawing  me  along,  than  I  had  any  idea  at 
that  time ;  and  to  this  day,  like  Richard  Bax- 
ter and  others,  I  never  have  been  able  to  point 
out  with  certainty,the  very  time  and  place  where 
I  obtained  religion,  if  ever  at  all.  This  defect, 
as  I  considered  it,  for  a  long  time  gave  me  no 
small  anxiety  and  uneasiness.  Bat  from  this 
perplexity  I  have  been  long  relieved,  fully  believ- 
ing, after  diligent  search,  that  it  is  by  no  means 
a  sine  qua  non  to  real  godliness.     Xever  mind 


42  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAXB. 

the  exact  time  and  place,  however  agreeable  and 

disagreeable,  if  we  have  the  experience,  the 
evidence,  the  fruits  of  true  religion.  Many 
have  professed  to  know  and  define  the  time 
and  place  of  their  conversion,  who  have  after 
all  found  themselves  sadly  mistaken.  The  tract 
on  "growth  in  grace,"  by  Dr.  Goodwin,  is  an 
excellent  guide  and  assistant  to  one  perplexed 
on  this  subject ;  so  is  Edwards  on  "  The  Affec- 
tions." This  book  I  read  privately  at  home, 
and  after  I  had  made  a  public  profession  of  re- 
ligion. It  took  me  through  a  severe  ordeal. 
In  the  forepart  I  was  cast  off,  stripped  bare, 
torn  in  pieces;  but  in  the  latter  I  was  enlight- 
ened, encouraged,  and  strengthened,  and  gra- 
dually more  and  more  established.  It  is  one 
of  the  safest  and  surest  guides  to  ascertain  the 
existence  of  real  religion  that  I  know  of  among 
all  human  productions.  The  book  was  not  ex- 
tensively known  at  that  time,  and  how  it  fell 
into  my  hands  I  am  not  now  able  to  say. 

[On  his  arrival  at  Lexington,  in  October, 
1799,  when  in  the  twenty-second  year  of  his 
age,  a  decisive  incident  occurred,  which  he  thus 
states : 

When  I  arrived  I  found  a  sacramental  oc- 
casion on  hand.  I  had  concluded  for  some 
time  that  it  would  not  do  for  me  to  live  out  of 
the  Church   any  longer.     I  thought,  perhaps, 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  43 

were  I  to  take  the  sacrament,  it  would  produce 
that  tenderness  of  feelings  the  absence  of  which 
I  had  bo  long  lamented.  My  notions  about  the 
sacrament  were  extravagant,  supposing  the  use 
of  the  elements  would  act  like  a  charm,  pro- 
ducing at  the  moment  of  contact  a  feeling  of 
sensibility  so  needful  and  so  much  desired. 
This,  I  supposed,  after  struggling  so  long  to  get 
up  good  feeling,  was  all  that  was  wanting;  and 
the  first  opportunity  I  met  with  I  was  deter- 
mined to  make  the  trial.  But  now  what  shall 
I  do.  It  was  Saturday  evening.  Friday  al- 
ways the  fast  day,  before  communion,  in  these 
days,  and  on  which  I  had  placed  great  reliance 
in  the  way  of  preparation,  had  passed  by,  and 
I  had  lost  the  opportunity.  Still  determined  to 
try  the  experiment,  so  firmly  fixed  in  my  mind, 
I  must  now  do  the  best  I  could.  I  must  pray 
that  night  and  next  morning  with  more  earnest- 
ness and  fervency.  The  solemn  crisis  arrived. 
I  applied  to  Dr.  Blythe  for  a  token,  which  he 
unhesitatingly  gave  me,  asking  me  no  ques- 
tions. He  probably  thought  of  my  former  ap- 
lication,  or  rather,  that  I  was  already  a  church 
member.  The  day  was  cold  and  chilly.  The 
old  frame  house  appeared  more  like  an  open 
barn  than  a  church.  I  took  my  seat  at  the 
lower  end  of  the  table,  no  one    being   below 


44  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAXD. 

me.  My  anticipations  were  dreadfully  disap- 
pointed. The  services,  as  usual,  were  lengthy. 
The  wind  blew  on  me  till  I  was  almost  shiv- 
ering. No  good  feeling,  of  course,  in  body  or 
soul.  What  a  disappointment !  The  tempter 
came  in  like  a  "  roaring  lion."  "  Now  you  have 
done  for  yourself;  you  have  committed  the 
unpardonable  sin;  you  have  '  eaten  and  drunk- 
en damnation'  to  yourself."  I  felt  miserable. 
This  was  the  first,  and  was  to  be  the  last  sacra- 
ment. I  had  definitely  concluded  never  to  try 
another.  But  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  order  it 
otherwise.  The  church  of  Harding  Creek,  now 
Lebanon,  was  vacant.  Good  old  Father  Tem- 
plin  had  left  for  the  lower  end  of  the  State, 
Dr.  Blythe  had  a  sacramental  meeting  there 
next  month,  November.  It  was  Indian  sum- 
mer, the  weather  fine  and  pleasant.  In  regard 
to  the  sacrament,  I  had  somehow  become  bet- 
ter instructed,  my  sails  were  lowered,  extrava- 
gant notions  about  it  dissipated  or  removed. 
Some  favorite  religious  friends  had  come  on  to 
attend  the  meeting.  I  felt  so  much  encouraged 
as  to  determine  to  try  it  again.  I  did  so,  and 
arose  from  the  table  with  renewed  strength  and 
satisfaction,  and  for  years  after  felt  more  and 
more  so,  on  any  occasion  when  I  had  an  op- 
portunity of  attending. 


LIFE   OF   DR.   CLELAND.  4o 

[The  narrative  comes  down  to  the  death  of 
his  parents,  and  to  the  changes  which  that 
event  introduced  into  his  course  of  life.] 

Arrangement  having  been  made,  I  once  more 
left  the  parental  roof,  with  high  expectations 
of  completing  my  literary  course,  hitherto  so 
often  interrupted.  For  the  sake  of  cheapness, 
as  well  as  to  compel  me  to  take  exercise,  I  took 
boarding  at  Mr.  Alexander  Smith's,  about  two 
miles  distant,  north  of  Lexington.  I  com- 
menced the  review  of  Cicero  and  Xenophon. 
I  had  just  gotten  fairly  under  way,  getting  off 
the  rust  of  two  years'  absence  from  literary 
pursuits,  when  I  was  startled  and  almost 
overwhelmed  with  sorrow  at  the  unwelcome 
news  of  my  beloved  mother's  death,  which 
happened  on  the  31st  of  January,  1800  [just  58 
years  to  a  day  before  the  death  of  her  son]. 

This  was  a  severe  stroke  to  one  whose  mo- 
ther  was  dearer  to  him  than  all  the  family  be- 
sides. I  went  home  a  short  time,  to  condole 
and  sympathize  with  the  family,  and  then  re- 
turned to  my  studies  again. 

I  had  scarcely  recovered  from  this  sore  afflic- 
tion when  I  received  a  letter  from  my  sister, 
urging  my  speedy  return  on  account  of  the 
dangerous  illness  of  our  father,  from  a  severe 
attack  of  pleurisy,  his  old  complaint  that  had 
endangered  his  life  several  times  before. 


4b  LiFE    OF    DR.    CLELAXD. 

"What  should  I  do?  The  next  day  was  the 
set  time  for  our  public  exhibition.  I  had  pre- 
pared an  oration  on  "  Domestic  Manufactures," 
so  much  needed  at  that  time.  Besides,  I  had 
a  very  important  part  to  act,  in  a  comedy, 
"  Don  Lopez,"  I  believe,  the  conduct  of  a  fa- 
ther in  giving  his  daughter  in  marriage.  My 
departure  would  be  a  great  drawback,  would 
make  a  considerable  chasm  in  the  exhibition. 
I  was  a  particular  favorite  of  Rev.  Jas.  Welch, 
the  President,  pro.  tern.,  and  Superintendent  of 
the  Institution.  He  tenderly  sympathized 
with  me  in  my  painful  situation.  Said  he  could 
not  say  "jS"o,"  if  I  insisted  upon  going.  But 
my  absence  would  be  a  serious  loss.  Hoped 
that  God  would  spare  the  life  of  my  only  sur- 
viving parent.  That,  could  I  trust  him,  and  be 
willing  to  stay  till  the  affair  was  over,  which 
would  be  but  a  little  past  noon,  next  day,  on 
my  return  home,  I  might  feel  better  satisfied, 
on  finding  things  better  than  I  had  feared. 
Besides,  he  would  call  in  my  active  assistance 
to  prompt  the  boys,  help  to  arrange  their  dif- 
ferent costumes,  etc.,  allvof  which  would  keep  my 
mind  withdrawn  from  the  painful  anxiety  and 
foreboding  respecting  my  father's  illness.  These 
suggestions  had  their  influence,  and  I  concluded 
to  stay.  The  night  was  a  restless  one.  To  re- 
alize father's  death,  the  great  destitution  of  the 


LIFE   OF   DR.   CLELAND.  47 

family — -what  would  become  of  us  all— indeed 
were  painful  reflections.  The  morning  arrived, 
the  time  for  the  exhibition  came  on — the  audi- 
ence was  large — the  exhibition  closed  at  two 
o'clock  P.  M.  I  made  all  haste  to  my  board- 
ing house,  took  a  hasty  repast,  mounted  my 
horse,  and  rode  twenty  miles  that  afternoon. 
Had  over  thirty  yet  to  go.  The  day  was  one 
of  peculiar  anxiety  and  suspense.  I  met  tra- 
velers, who,  I  felt  certain,  could  tell  me  the 
fact  whether  father  was  living  or  not.  I  was 
afraid  to  inquire.  I  rode  thus  far  all  the  day 
alone,  and  when  within  eight  miles  of  home, 
one  who  knew  me  fell  in  company  and  rode 
a  short  distance  with  me.  Both  were  silent 
after  the  salutation,  and  I  was  solemn.  At 
length  he  broke  the  silence.  "I  reckon,"  said 
he,  "  you  have  not  been  home  since  your  fa- 
ther's death  ?  "  I  could  make  no  reply.  Kor 
can  I  ever  forget  the  peculiar  and  indescribable 
emotions  of  the  occasion.  I  arrived  home ; 
but  who  can  describe  the  scene !  An  elder 
sister — -the  junior  members  of  a  bereaved  and 
distressed  family — >all  orphan  and  helpless — a 
younger  brother  and  three  small  sisters — the 
colored  ones,  too — all  met  me  crying.  I  am 
not  able  to  say  now  how  I  got  through  this 
affecting  scene. 

But  the  Lord  helped  me  beyond  all  concep- 


48  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAXb. 

tion  and  expectation.  My  father  had  died  the 
day  on  which  I  had  received  my  sister's  letter, 
the  9th  day  of  April,  just  two  months  and  nine 
days  after  the  death  of  our  dear  mother.  He 
was  buried  the  next  day,  the  day  of  our  exhi- 
bition, and  most  likely  about  the  time  I  was 
acting  my  part  on  the  stage.  This  I  often  re- 
gretted, but  never  felt  any  compunction  of 
conscience,  or  self-reproach,  considering  the 
circumstances  under  which  I  was  placed. 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  40 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Struggles  'with  Domestic  Cares — Spiritual  Struggles — Camp 
Meeting  at  Cane  Ridge — At  Ilite  Spring — First  Efforts  as  a 
Public  Exhorter — Blessings  of  God  on  his  Labors. 

What  sudden  and  unexpected  changes  had 
followed  each  other  in  so  short  a  time!  From 
the  college  walls  I  was  suddenly  translated  to 
take  my  position  at  the  head  of  a  destitute 
family.  I  was  at  this  time  within  a  month  of 
closing  my  twenty- second  year.  I  considered 
my  literary  pursuits  now  at  an  end !  all  access 
to  the  pulpit  completely  barred,  so  that  I  un- 
hesitatingly abandoned  all  hope  or  expectation 
of  arriving  at  that  holy  calling.  I  had  now  in 
a  measure  to  occupy  the  place  of  my  father. 
I  was  head  of  the  family*  Wrought  on  the 
farm  day  and  night.  Every  thing  was  behind 
on  account  of  his  illness  and  death.  I  had 
likewise  to  be  administrator  of  his  estate, 
guardian  for  the  children,  defender  of  our  U  rra 
firma,  against  a  powerful  opponent;  and  public 
innkeeper,  where  many  travelers  resorted  for 
entertainment,  not  knowing  of  the  death  of 
their  former  favorite  host  and  hostess.  Here 
was   work  for  an  older  and  more  experienced 


50  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

head  than  mine.  On  a  review  at  this  distant 
period,  I  often  wonder  how  I  surmounted  all 
these  difficulties.  But  God  helped  me,  or  I 
certainly  must  have  failed.  I  did  not  know 
then  what  was  before  me. 

Considering  the  family  now  as  my  own,  I 
thought  it  my  duty  to  set  up  family  worship. 
My  oldest  sister,  though  not  under  religious 
impressions,  acquiesced  when  I  made  the  pro- 
posal. I  commenced  right  away  the  same 
evening  after  my  return.  We  needed  God's 
assistance  very  much  in  our  destitute  condition, 
and  it  was  proper  we  should  ask  it  of  him. 

In  the  discharge  of  the  duty  of  family  wor- 
ship there  were  appalling  difficulties  enough  to 
discourage  a  youthful  practitioner;  at  night 
there  would  be  from  six  to  twelve  travelers 
around  the  fire-side,  some  of  them  infidels,  with 
only  now  and  then  one  of  some  Christian  de- 
nomination. When  I  found  any  of  this  latter 
class  present,  I  felt  myself  encouraged  and 
strengthened  very  much.  "When  the  little  table 
with  the  books  lying  thereon  was  brought  up, 
some  seemed  uneasy,  and  some  surprised.  I 
gave  them  to  understand  what  my  practice 
was,  but  if  they  felt  fatigued  and  preferred  to 
retire,  I  offered,  to  show  them  their  resting- 
place  ;  but  few  availed  themselves  of  this  sug- 
gestion.   They  generally  preferred,  perhaps  out 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLBLAND.  51 

of  respect,  to  remain  during  the  service.  Some 
would  join  in  singing  the  hymn  !  which  afford- 
ed me  considerable  courage  and  pleasure.  In 
prayer,  some  stood,  others  kneeled.  Sometimes 
I  had  a  little  brush  with  an  infidel  on  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  etc. 

But  I  felt  obliged  to  omit  the  duty  of  family 
worship  in  the  morning — travelers  were  eager 
to  be  on  their  journey — the  children  were  pre- 
paring for  school,  etc.  When  I  would  attempt 
it  on  Sabbath  mornings,  I  was  frequently  in- 
terrupted by  the  approach  of  travelers.  But 
amid  all  these  outward  difficulties,  in  addition 
to  my  own  feebleness  and  youthful  inexperi- 
ence, I  rejoice  this  clay  that  God  put  it  into  my 
heart  to  begin,  and  that  he  enabled  me  "  to  pray 
and  not  to  faint."  I  believe  now,  though  I  did 
not  know  it  then,  that  I  was  the  only  one  who 
was  in  the  habit  of  praying  in  the  family,  in 
all  the  region  round  about;  and  soon  it  was 
noised  about,  to  the  great  wonder  and  surprise 
of  many,  that  so  young  a  man,  and  under  such 
circumstances,  should  be  found  engaged  in 
holding  family  worship.  But  this  very  circum- 
stance, as  will  shortly  appear,  was  the  introduc- 
tion to  my  further  public  usefulness. 

Besides  the  cares  and  avocations  already  mi-. 
merous  and  pressing,  which  recpiired  my  atten- 
tion, was  a  horse-millof  a  popular  character. 


52  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

so  as  to  attract  customers  from  all  quarters.  I 
was  forced  sometimes  to  "be  miller  myself  till  I 
could  get  a  permanent  superintendent ;  but  if 
it  got  the  least  out  of  repair,  no  one  could  refit 
it  but  myself;  and  this  skill  and  advantage  I 
acquired  by  assisting  my  father  in  his  lifetime. 
I  was  often  called  to  aid  him  in  dressing  the 
stones,  fixing  the  wheels,  etc.  This  business  I 
had  no  partiality  for,  but  I  found  it  to  be  of 
singular  advantage  to  me,  though  often  per- 
plexing and  onerous ;  greatly  at  times,  inter- 
fering with  spiritual  duties  and  other  avoca- 
tions. 

In  the  meantime,  my  oldest  sister  and  house- 
keeper, Anna,  was  married  to  a  Mr.  James 
Wilson,  of  Virginia,  and  left  me.  True  I  had 
a  younger  sister,  just  in  her  teens,  who  acted 
her  part  in  that  capacity  better  than  I  could 
have  anticipated. 

During  all  this  time  of  hurry,  anxiety  and 
change,  enough  to  have  employed  the  wisdom 
and  energies  of  the  most  experienced  minds — 
my  religious  feelings  and  exercises  always  fee- 
ble and  hesitating  at  best,  for  the  want  of  stated 
opportunities,  and  healthful,  invigorating  means 
of  grace — suffered  a  considerable  depression. 
My  private  duties  were  formal  and  less  frequent 
— my  reflections  were  unpleasant — my  feelings 
lifeless — my  hopes  were  almost  extinct.    About 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  53 

the  middle  of  June,  1801,  was  the  Cane  Ridge 
meeting  in  Bourbon  county;  it  was  the  time  of 
the  groat  revival,  particularly  in  the  southern 
and  western  portions  of  Kentucky.  The  falling- 
down  exercise,  as  it  was  called,  was  in  full  opera- 
tion. I  was  determined,  if  possible,  to  attend 
this  meeting,  respecting  which  great  expecta- 
tions were  formed. 

Having  made  my  arrangements,  placing  the 
family  under  suitable  protection,  I  attended  the 
meeting.  A  great  and  solemn  one  it  was,  sure 
enough.  I  shall  not  attempt  a  description  of 
this  mooting,  of  its  extent  and  outward  appear- 
ance. This  has  been  repeatedly  done  by  other 
writers.  As  to  myself,  I  had  fancied,  that  no 
sooner  than  I  would  reach  the  place  and  enter 
the  religious  atmosphere,  I  would  enjoy  quite 
a  different  feeling  from  that  which  I  had  so 
long  experienced  and  lamented.  I  expected  to 
fall  quite  soon,  or  experience  some  softening, 
pleasing,  inward  ecstacy — something  I  could 
not  tell  what.  But,  to  my  great  disappointment, 
I  felt  unmoved,  cold,  and  hard  as  a  stone.  I 
went  from  tent  to  tent,  witnessing  many  pros- 
trate as  though  dead,  or  dying — persons  all 
around  singing  and  praying.  Though  fond  of 
singing  myself,  I  could  not  join  with  them.  I 
ret i rod  to  a  tent  to  sleep,  but  I  could  not.  I 
thought  of  home,  and  wished   myself  there. 


54  LIFE   OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

The  tempter  told  me  I  bad  no  business  there, 
that  the  family  needed  my  presence,  and  that 
some   accident  would  befall  them  during  my 
absence,  so  that  I  had  "  neither  joy  nor  song." 
Thus  I  continued  until  the  hour  of  preaching 
next  day,  which  was  the  Sabbath.  The  preach- 
er in  the  morning  was  my  old  favorite,  Rev. 
Robert  Marshall.    He  occupied  the  stand  while 
another  occupied  the  church,  a  short  distance 
apart.    I  chose  the  stand,  of  course.    The  con- 
gregation was  immense.     The  text  was  Cant, 
ii :  10,   "Rise  up  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and 
come  away."     In  the  course  of  the  sermon  my 
case  was  described  exactly.     The  preacher,  if  I 
may  so  say,  "  struck  the  trail"  of  my  experience 
some  distance  back,  and  came  on  plainer  and 
plainer,  and  at  every  step  more  sensibly,  and 
with  more  effect.     At  length  he  came  right  up 
with  me— my  religious  state  and  feeling  were 
depicted  better  than  I  could  have  possibly  done 
it   myself.     "Rise   up  my  love"  was  pressed 
upon  me  in  the  tenderest  and  most  affectionate 
manner.     I  thought,  indeed,  it  was  the  heaven- 
ly bridegroom  calling  and  inviting  his   poor, 
feeble  and  falling  one  to. rise  from  my  low  condi- 
tion, and  come  away  and  follow  him  more  en- 
tirely.     My   heart    was    melted !    my   bosom 
heaved !  my  eyes,  for   the   first   time,  were   a 
fountain  of  tears.     I  stood  behind  one  of  the 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAXD.  00 

benches  leaning  forward  against  its  back.  I 
wept  till  my  handkerchief  was  saturated  with 
my  tears.  I  felt  like  giving  away.  I  felt  an 
indescribable  sensation,  as  when  one  strikes  his 
elbow  against  a  hard  substance.  I  do  not  say 
that  mine  was  the  prevailing  exercise,  or  that 
it  did  not  arise  from  natural  causes.  So  it  was  ; 
my  position  was  discovered  by  a  friend  stand- 
ing near  me.  He  took  hold  on  me,  and  gently 
drew  me  beside  him,  with  my  head  in  his  lap. 
There  I  continued  weeping,  talking,  praying, 
exhorting,  etc.,  till  the  sun  was  no  more  than 
two  hours  high.  The  sermon  had  closed — seven 
courses  of  sacramental  service  had  passed — but 
which  I  was  not  in  a  condition  to  attend. 

But  the  embargo  was  removed,  and  I  was  set 
at  liberty.  I  greatly  enjoyed  the  meeting,  as 
long  as  I  remained.  As  to  the  duration  of  my 
exercise,  it  appeared  to  me  to  have  been  not 
more  than  one  hour.  And  cue  thing  I  shall 
never  forget,  that  weeping,  dissolved,  humbled 
situation  was  so  suited  to  my  case — something 
like  it  had,  all  along,  been  so  much  desired, 
that  I  seemed  to  covet  its  uninterrupted  con- 
tinuance ;  so  much  so,  that  could  an  instrument 
of  writing  insuring  it,  been  presented  for  my 
signature,  I  could  have  signed  it  with  avidity 
— signing  and  sealing  it  for  life — to  continue  in 
such  a  frame,  while  it  pleased  God  to  continue 


56  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

my  being  here.  This  I  know  is  extravagant, 
but  some  allowance  is  to  be  made  for  one  in 
my  circumstances,  who,  for  the  want  of  relig- 
ious training,  was  so  deficient  in  religious 
knowledge,  and  especially  who  had  longed 
after  and  depended  so  much  upon  religious  feel- 
ing. To  say  this  was  the  time  of  my  change  of 
heart,  I  will  not.  I  hope  that  had  taken  place 
before.  I  rather  considered  this  a  revival,  an 
enlarged  manifestation  of  that  grace  which  had 
been  communicated  to  me  before;  but  which 
had  undergone  much  obscmity  and  depression. 

[Two  months  after  the  camp-meeting  at  Cane 
Ridge,  another  was  held  at  Hite's  Spring,  near 
Harrodsburg.] 

The  meeting  was  one  of  great  interest  and 
solemnity  ;  though  not  so  large,  it  was  of  a 
type  or  complexion  much  like  the  one  at  Cane 
Ridge  two  months  before.  I  shall  not  attempt 
an  enlargement  here,  my  main  object  being  to 
follow  the  train  of  Providential  dealings  with 
respect  to  myself. 

Late  on  Sabbath  afternoon,  the  evening  repast 
having  been  attended  to,  and  while  arrange- 
ments were  being  made  for  coming  services, 
the  voice  of  praise  was  to  be  heard  in  different 
places.  There  sat  around  me  several  of  my 
friends  and  acquaintances,  from  the  destitute 
region  where  I  resided  in  Washington  county 


I  ii'H   OF    DR.    CLKLAND.  5*3 

(now  Marion).    I  commenced  an  easy,  familiar, 

tender  conversation  with  them,  relative  to  our 

bute   and  deplorable   condition,  as  having 

no  preaching,  no  stated  public  means  of  grace, 

the  miserable  way  in  which  we  bad  been  living, 
and  what,  at  last,  was  to  be  the  end  of  all. 
Some  live  or  six  were  moved  to  tears;  indeed 
there  was  deep  and  tender  emotion,  sobs,  with 
heaving  bosoms,  and  suppressed  crying.  I 
could  not  stand  that.  The  Hood  of  sympathy 
that  had  been  broken  up  at  Cane  Ridge,  was 
now  ready  to  overflow  with  a  swelling  tide  at 
this  interesting  crisis.  I  commenced  praying, 
and  continued  with  great  fervency  and  feeling, 
as  was  estimated  by  those  present,  for  the  space 
of  at  least  an  hour.  This  exercise  was  imme- 
diately succeeded  by  exhortation,  which  con- 
tinued several  hours  longer,  and  till  exhaustion 
took  place,  and  I  was  either  persuaded  or  com- 
pelled to  desist.  A  dense  crowd  was  standing 
around  all  the  time,  many  weeping,  some  fallen 
prostrate  and  crying  for  mercy.  This  I  have 
called  an  involuntary  exercise,  and  was  proba- 
bly, at  the  time,  considered  by  some  as  a  mere 
spasmodic  effusion.  So  it  was.  G-od  made  it 
the  occasion  of  the  first  awaking  of  some  per- 
sons present,  who  subsequently  declared  that 
to  be  the  fact,  in  offering  themselves  for  mem- 
bership  in  the  first  church  committed  to  my 


58  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAjNI', 

charge,  called  Union,  as  will  be  noticed  hereaf- 
ter. One  of  the  persons  arrested  at  that  time 
became  an  elder  of  that  church.  Surely  we 
may  say,  "  What  hath  God  wrought  ? " 

But  now  came  scenes  of  interest  and  cases  of 
responsibility  like  a  rolling  tide,  thicker  and 
faster  upon  me,  without  any  special  agency  of 
my  own.  I  had  returned  from  the  meeting  but 
a  few  days,  when  quite  late  one  evening,  I  was 
sent  for,  somewhat  over  a  mile,  on  an  errand, 
the  like  of  which  had  never  been  known  before 
in  that  region.  It  was  a  new  thing  under  the 
sun,  among  that  people.  A  young  man  had 
returned  from  that  meeting  with  a  "  sharp  ar- 
row in  the  heart  of  the  King's  enemy.'7  He 
was  so  deeply  impressed  that  he  could  find  no 
rest,  day  nor  night ;  he  must  have  some  one  to 
pray  for  him.  There  is  only  one  who  is  known 
to  pray  in  the  family,  in  all  the  neighborhood, 
the  same  who  prayed  and  exhorted  so  conspi- 
cuously at  the  "  lay-meeting."  That  is  the 
man  ;  he  must  be  sent  for. 

When  I  arrived,  sure  enough,  I  found  him 
deeply  distressed.  I  talked  with  him,  sung, 
"  Then  pity  Lord — O  Lord  forgive,"  one  of  my 
favorite  songs,  and  prayed  for  him  as  well  as  I 
could,  and  returned  home. 

The  next  evening,  after  dark,  while  sitting 
all  alone,  the  rest  of  the  family  having  all  re- 


LIFE    OF   BR.    CLELAND.  69 

tired  to  bod,  there  was  a  rapping  at  my  door 
which  I  apprehended  to  be  a  late  traveler  seek- 
ing his  resting-place  for  the  night.  But  how 
was  I  disappointed  in  seeing  the  same  black 
messenger  on  a  similar  errand  as  on  the  evening 
before.  Being  late,  and  having  no  time  to 
lose,  I  mounted  the  messenger's  horse,  bare* 
back,  except  a  small  saddle-blanket—took  him 
behind  me,  and  away  we  went  through  the 
dark  forest,  over  a  newly  cut  road,  full  of 
stumps  and  other  annoyances,  until  we  arrived, 
at  the  house  where  I  was  expected.  Two  men 
were  in  waiting  to  see  me  before  I  entered. 
They  informed  me  of  their  particular  intention 
in  sending  for  me.  Besides  the  distressed  man 
there  was  a  number  of  others  in  the  house,  who 
had  come  there  through  sympathy  and  curi- 
osity to  see  a  man  distressed  on  account  of  his 
soul.  That  it  had  been  agreed  upon  to  send 
for  me  as  late  as  it  was,  under  the  belief  and 
expectation  that  I  would  address  them ;  and 
under  this  impression  the  people  had  been  de- 
tained. I  told  them  I  could  not  comply  with 
their  wishes;  that  I  had  no  official  authority  to 
speak  in  public;  that  but  recently  having  been 
a  church  member,  and  not  being  acquainted 
with  the  government  and  discipline  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  I  might  violate  rules,  etc. ; 


60  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND, 

and,  further,  though.  I  had  exhorted  at  the 
camp-meeting,  it  was  an  involuntary  effusion — • 
not  having  the  proper  control  of  my  judgment 
and  feelings  at  the  time— hut  to  undertake  the 
thing  coolly  and  deliberately,  I  feared  I  would 
not  be  able  to  succeed.  These  reasons  appeared 
to  have  weight,  and  my  refusal  seemed  reason- 
able. At  any  rate,  they  insisted  I  must  sing 
and  pray.  To  this  I  assented,  and  the  more 
readily,  if  they  would  join  in  and  help  me  out. 
One,  an  elder  brother  of  the  distressed  man, 
and  a  Methodist  by  profession,  agreed  to  pray. 
We  went  in.  Some  dozen  or  twenty  persons 
were  in  the  house.  All  appeared  serious  and 
solemn.  ~No  noise  in  the  house,  save  the  sobs 
and  cries  of  the  young  man.  I  spoke  a  few 
words  to  him  in  a  low  voice.  Began,  as  before 
to  sing,  "  Show  pity,  Lord,"  etc,  as  the  most 
suitable  words  I  could  select.  We  knelt  down, 
and  I  prayed  as  I  could.  I  think  his  brother, 
agreeable  to  promise,  also  prayed.  When  I 
rose  to  my  feet  it  appeared  that  every  eye  was 
fixed  upon  me  :  they  expected  me  to  hold  forth, 
not  knowing  that  I  had  previously  declined 
saying  any  thing.  I  felt,  however,  constrained 
to  say  something,  I  could  not  tell  what.  I  would 
not  call  it  exhortation,  but  a  little  plain,  easy 
talk.     I   attempted    to   portray  an    irreligious 


LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND.  Ijl 

condition,  the  great  need  of  something  more 
and  better,  I  forgot  my  little  (nil;,  and  soon  got 
up  to  the  strain  of  exhortation. 

This  first  attempt  seemed  to  be  favorably 
received.  The  meeting  was  closed.  Informing 
my  neighbors  that  being  disappointed  in  my 
desires  for  public  life,  and  having  been  brought 
back  providentially  among  them,  at  least  for 
awhile,  and  wishing  to  do  them  all  the  good  I 
could,  as  a  neighbor  and  as  a  private  citizen,  I 
left  an  appointment  for  the  same  place,  naming 
the  evening,  and  withdrew. 

My  new  friend  from  Virginia,  Mr.  Andrew 
Cunningham,  insisted  on  my  returning  home 
with  him  that  night,  stating  that  his  wife  was 
in  a  distressed  state  of  mind,  and  had  a  particu- 
lar wish  to  see  me.  She  had  professed  "to 
have  obtained  a  good  hope  through  grace,"  in 
Virginia,  but  owing  to  various  causes,  she  had 
not  publicly  owned  Christ — had  neglected  to 
join  herself  to  his  people — had  become  lifeless 
and  unbelieving,  and  was  strongly  tempted  to 
conclude  that  she  had  committed  the  unpardon- 
able sin.  I  went  and  found  it  as  had  been  rep- 
resented. I  sat  up  till  after  midnight,  convers- 
ing with  and  instructing  her  as  well  as  I  was 
able.  My  visit  on  this  occasion,  I  have  reason 
to  believe,  was  beneficial.  She  was  greatly 
relieved,  and  at  the  proper  time  united  herself 


62  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

to  the  Church — both  she  and  her  husband — 
who  was  afterward  chosen  ruling  elder  of  Bethel 
Union,  and  so  continued  until  the  day  of  his 
death. 

It  was  noised  abroad  that  "little  Tommy 
CI  eland/'  as  I  was  familiarly  called,  had  com- 
menced preaching.  At  the  appointed  time  I 
found  the  house  filled  to  overflowing.  There 
was  considerable  seriousness  and  solemnity. 
Here  a  younger  sister  of  Mrs.  Cunningham, 
was  seriously  awakened,  and  perhaps  some 
others.  At  a  second  meeting  at  the  same  place, 
the  ensuing  week,  another  sister  was,  for  the 
first  time,  brought  under  pungent  conviction. 
Both  sisters  shortly  afterward  professed  hope 
in  Christ,  and  both  continue  this  day,  as  they 
have  for  many  years,  to  adorn  the  doctrines  of 
God  and  our  Savior,  by  a  holy  walk  and  godly 
conversation.  Two  other  sisters  became  after- 
ward the  fruits  of  my  early  ministry — all  yet 
living. 

The  next  effort  I  made  by  appointment  was 
at  my  grand-father's  (Richards).  This  appoint- 
ment was  made  for  Sabbath  afternoon,  an  hour 
or  two  before  sunset.  A  vast  multitude,  at- 
tracted by  novelty  or  curiosity,  attended.  The 
house  could  hold  but  a  small  portion  of  them. 
We  had  to  resort  to  the  yard  in  front — the 
door-steps  to  be  used  as  the  platform.     Two 


LH  l.    01    DR.    CLELAND.  08 

were  present — one  of  the  Methodist 
and  the  other  of  the  Baptist  persuasion.  I 
earnestly  requested  them,  as  they  were  author- 
ized preachers,  to  go  forward  and  commence 
the  meeting.  They  both  refused,  saying,  the 
people  would  be  disappointed,  having  all  come 
out  expecting  to  hear  me;  that  I  must  lead 
the  way  at  all  events,  and  they  would  follow 
and  aid  nie  all  they  could.  I  took  my  stand 
on  the  door-steps,  singing,  praying,  exhorting, 
I  scarcely  knew  how.  I  was  not  agitated — I 
opened  my  mouth,  and  utterance  wTas  given 
me.  There  was  no  stop — no  stammering. 
The  multitude,  densely  standing  together,  was 
greatly  moved.  The  two  preachers  went  in 
among  them,  singing,  praying,  exhorting. 
Some  fell  to  the  ground,  and  others  pressed 
around,  begging  us  most  earnestly  and  feel- 
ingly to  pray  for  them.  I  was  in  a  sitting  pos- 
ture, on  the  grassy  yard ;  some  fell  across  my 
legs,  as  they  were  extended;  others  kneeling 
all  around  me ;  so  that  I  was,  for  awhile, 
almost  crowded  to  suffocation.  In  that  position 
I  prayed  for  them,  exhorted  and  encouraged 
them  to  flee  to  Christ.  The  two  preachers, 
Robert  Chambers,  Methodist,  and  Owen  Owens, 
Baptist,  were  actively  employed  in  other  parts 
of  the  crowd. 


64  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

This  meeting,  I  have  reason  to  hope,  was  at- 
tended with  favorable  results.  Another  was 
appointed  the  next  Sabbath,  at  the  same  time 
and  place.  The  evening  was  fair  and  pleasant ; 
the  people  flocked  in  crowds,  from  the  distance 
of  ten  miles  around.  The  two  preachers,  with 
one  other  from  Springfield  (Rev.  Jesse  Head), 
were  again  in  attendance.  I  felt  my  great 
weakness  and  responsibility.  The  task  and 
burden  appeared  great,  and  really  overwhelm- 
ing, for  one  so  young  and  inexperienced. 
While  the  people  were  gathering  from  all  quar- 
ters, I  retired  into  a  little  back  room,  partly  to 
compose  myself,  and  to  reflect  and  pray,  and 
likewise  to  give  opportunity  to  the  ministers 
present  to  commence  the  service.  But,  no, 
this  must  not  be.  I  was  hunted  up  in  my  pri- 
vate retirement.  I  had  lain  myself  down  upon 
the  bed,  and  was  willing  to  remain  there,  while 
one  of  the  ministers  should  go  forward  and 
preach  a  short  sermon.  But  all  my  stratagems 
and  pleadings  were  unavailing.  Go  forward  I 
must  and  did,  pursuing  the  same  course,  with 
similar  results,  only  more  extensive  than  those 
that  attended  the  previous  meeting. 

Here  was  the  commencement  of  the  first 
revival  of  religion  ever  enjoyed  by  that  neigh- 
borhood.    It  was  the  work  of  God,  and  not 


LIFE    OF    DR.    (  LELAND. 

the  work  of  man.  This  must  appear  evident 
from  the  whole  aspect  of  it,  as  well  as  from  the 
feeble  instrumentalities  employed  in  it. 

There  being  no  organized  church  of  the 
Presbyterian  denomination  in  the  neighbor- 
hood,  and  myself  having  no  official  authority  to 
do  any  thing,  and,  indeed,  fearful  lest  I  was  a 
violator  of  good  order,  a  number  who  pro- 
1  religion  were  either  proselyted,  or  in- 
dueed  to  join  the  different  denominations 
around,  especially  those  represented  by  those 
ministers  who  participated  on  the  several  occa- 
sions. There  were,  however,  some  dozen  or  so 
wh#  held  on,  until  a  church,  of  which  I  subse- 
quently became  pastor,  was  organized,  and  with 
which  they  became  ecclesiastically  connected. 


66  LIFE    OF    DR.    (  LELAND. 


CHAPTER  V. 

His  Marriage — Character  of  Mrs.  Cleland — Appearance  in  Pres- 
bytery as  a  Candidate  for  the  Ministry — Difficulties  and  En- 
couragements— Second  Appearance  in  Presbytery  in  1802 — 
Method  of  Study — Third  Appearance  in  Presbjtery — Fourth 
Appearance  and  Licensure  in  1803 — Early  Labors  in  the  Min- 
istry— Organization  of  Union  Church — Ordination,  October, 
1801 — Missionary  Tour  to  Vincennes  in  1805. 

[On  the  22d  of  October,  1801,  a  few  weeks 
after  the  meeting  at  Hite's  Spring,  Mr.  Cleland 
was  married  to  Miss  Margaret  Armstrong, 
daughter  of  the  late  Capt.  John  Armstrong, 
within  the  bounds  of  the  New  Providence 
Church,  of  which  he  was  afterward  the  pastor. 
Of  this  excellent  and  godly  woman,  he  himself 
says,  writing  in  1848—] 

This  union,  should  it  continue  till  the  en- 
suing fall  (1848),  will  have  completed  forty- 
seven  years.  This  is  the  one  divinely  allotted 
to  me,  kind,  attentive,  plain,  industrious,  frugal, 
and,  above  ail,  I  hope  pious  ;  she  has  in  various 
ways  helped  me  forward  in  the  ministry.  She 
has  made  me  the  father  of  ten*  children— seven 

*  These  are:  Elizabeth  Cleland  (Mrs.  Jer.  Wm.  Pawling), 
born  September  2,  1802.  Paulina  Cleland,  born  May  14,  1804. 
Priscilla  A.  G.  Cleland,  born  July  18,  1806.  Clarinda  C.  Cle- 
land, born  Aug.  17,  1808.  Philip  S.  Cleland,  born  Nov.  27, 
1811.  John  W.  Cleland,  born  Feb.  24,  1814.  Thos.  H.  Cleland, 
born  Dec.  19,  1816.  Mary  L.  Cleland,  born  May  29,  1819. 
William  E.  Cleland,  born  Oct.  19,  1824. 


LIFE   OF    DR.    CLELAND.  07 

of  whom  are  yet  living,  doing  well  as  to  the 
things  of  this  world — all  members  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church. 

[Writing  again,  January  31,  1855,  just  three 
years  before  his  own  death,  he  says — ] 

Since  the  foregoing  sketch  was  penned  (in 
the  fall  of  1848)  various  changes  have  occurred 
which  deserve  special  notice.  The  most  afflic- 
tive one  is  the  death  of  my  good  wife,  which 
distressing  bereavement  took  place  the  24th  of 
April,  1854.  A  young  minister,  who  was  one 
of  (iny  theological  pupils,  says:  "Mrs.  Cleland 
was  one  of  the  best  women  in  Kentucky,  and 
a  better  minister's  wife  I  never  knew."  She 
was  much  esteemed  by  a  large  circle  of  friends 
and  relatives,  far  and  near.  Her  loss  in  the 
congregation  and  neighborhood  is  universally 
regretted.  I  need  not  say  how  much  I  feel  her 
absence  in  my  lonely  hours,  both  night  and 
day.  She  was  a  little  over  75  years  old  when 
she  died.  My  dear  mother  died  55  years  ago 
this  day. 

[To  this  tender  and  delicate  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  Mrs.  Cleland  not  a  word  should  be 
added  by  another  hand.  Her  children  rise  up 
and  call  her  blessed;  her  husband,  also,  and  he 
praiseth  her. 

The  marriage  took  place  during  the  session 
of  Presbytery,  in  the  IsTewt Providence  Church. 


68  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

He  thus  relates  what  took  place  in  Presbytery 
the  same  evening — ] 

The  Presbytery,  consisting  of  three  minis- 
ters— a  bare  quorum — being  invited,  had  ad- 
journed to  the  place  of  marriage.  Some  time 
after  supper — ten  or  eleven  o'clock — I  was  con- 
ducted by  one  of  the  members  (Mr.  Cameron) 
before  the  body,  for  the  purpose,  as  I  supposed, 
of  obtaining  the  license  for  exhortation,  as  had 
been  intimated  by  Mr.  Eobertson,  who,  as  yet, 
was  not  a  member  of  Presbytery. 

They  first  examined  me  on  experimental  re- 
ligion ;  then  respecting  my  views  of  what  con- 
stituted a  call  to  the  ministry — all  which  I  sup- 
posed was  necessary,  and  preparatory  to  the 
anticipated  license.  The  next  inquiry  was  as 
to  how  far  I  had  progressed  in  my  course  of 
literature,  and  if  I  had  not  had  in  view  the 
gospel  ministry.  Having  received  the  desired 
information,  the  next  inquiry  was,  Could  I  not 
be  induced  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  gos- 
pel ministry  ?  To  this  I  replied  without  any 
hesitation  in  the  negative.  I  readily  stated  my 
difficulties,  which  had  all  been  looked  at  again 
and  again — all  fresh  in  my  recollection,  and 
considered  long  since  as  insurmountable — so 
much  so  that,  immediately  on  my  father's  de- 
cease, that  matter  had  been  palpably  and  finally 
settled.     They  labored  with  me  to  remove,  at 


LIFE    01    DR.    CLELAND. 

.  the  most  appalling  difficulties;  and  at  anj 

rate  urged  upon  me  a  reconsideration  of  the 
subject,  and  at  the  same  time  inviting  me  to 
another  interview  with  them  next  morning, 
hoping  by  that  time  that  my  views  on  that  sub- 
ject might  undergo  some  favorable  change. 

The  morning  arrived)  and  agreeable  to  prom- 
ise and  expectation,  I  was  again  before  the 
Presbytery.  But  I  was  just  where  they  had 
left  me;  I  had  made  no  progress  on  the  subject 
under  consideration.  I  was  still,  and  to  the 
last,  as  determined  on  the  negative  as  before. 
With  a  vast  amount  of  domestic  cares  and 
other  avocations-rwith  an  unfinished  educa- 
tion— no  theological  instructor,  and  no  books 
to  aid  my  studies,  how  was  it  possible  for  one 
in  my  condition  to  think  of  entering  the  pulpitl 

Again  the  Presbytery  labored  in  all  kindness 
and  tenderness  to  bring  my  mind  to  an  acqui- 
escence. Being  apprized  of  the  peculiarities  of 
my  case  and  circumstances,  they  gave  me  to 
understand  that  all  allowance  would  be  made, 
and  all  leniency  exercised,  and  any  assistance 
in  their  power  should  be  rendered.  All  these 
encouragements,  however,  did  not  relieve  my 
apprehensions,  or  relieve  me  from  my  embar- 
rassments. I  still  responded  unhesitatingly  and 
candidly  in  the  negative.  I  could  not  c< 
entiously  do  otherwise.     They  then  selected  a 


TO  LIFE    OF   BR.    CLELAtfB. 

text  for  me  to  write  on,  1  Cor.  ix :  16 ;  "Wo  is 
me,  if  I  preach  not  the  gospel."  This  was  con- 
sidered an  appropriate  subject  for  reflection— 
that  it  might  lead  my  mind  in  the  right  direc- 
tion— and  that  by  the  Spring  Presbytery,  which 
they  wished  me  to  attend,  I  might  be  fully  sat- 
isfied as  to  the  path  of  duty.  In  the  meantime 
I  had  privilege  to  hold  social  meetings,  to  ex- 
hort my  neighbors ;  and  endeavor  in  that  and 
in  other  ways  to  do  them  all  the  good  I  could. 
Thus  I  considered  the  matter  at  an  end  until 
the  next  spring™ that  I  was  on  a  kind  of  pro- 
bation, and  left  entirely  optionary  with  me 
whether  to  make  the  effort  or  not,  at  the  spring 
meeting  of  the  Presbytery.  2sot  having  any 
knowledge  of  Presbyterial  proceedings,  I  no 
more  dreamed  of  being  regularly  entered  as  a 
candidate  for  the  gospel  ministry  than  I  did  of 
being  registered  among  the  Levites  as  a  can- 
didate for  the  office  of  high  priesthood.  But 
so  it  is.  I  stand  recorded  on  their  minutes  as 
having  been  introduced  to  the  notice  of  Pres- 
bytery as  a  candidate  for  the  gospel  ministry. 
The  usual  examination  on  experimental  re- 
ligion—my views  of  what  constituted  a  call  to 
the  gospel  ministry*— all  sustained,  and  the 
above  text  assigned  me  as  a  part  of  trial  for  the 
next  Presbytery,  I  was  thus,  I  may  say,  com- 
pletely taken  in;  or,  to  speak  more  technically, 


mm.    01    i'il.   CLELAN1  .  71 

."  as  the  Mexicans  do  their  wild  horses 
to  train  them  for  future  usefulness.  Of  one 
thing  I  am  certain:  I  did  not  appear  volun* 
tartly  before  the  Presbytery  and  say,  "Here  am 
I,  send  me."  Yet  I  hope  I  am  not  one  of  those 
who  run,  not  being  sent. 

From  these  new  and  interesting'  scenes  I  turn 
toward  home  with  additional  cares  and  respon- 
sibilities. They  were  great  enough  before,  as 
one  might  think,  for  one  of  my  age  and  inex- 
perience— being  now  live  months  in  my  twenty- 
fourth  year.  To  be  sure  I  had  now  procured 
me  a  suitable  help-meet  for  life— the  one  whom 
"  God  gave  to  be  with  me." 

But  besides  all  these  accumulated  cares  and 
avocations  already  mentioned,  here  is  one,  more 
weighty  and  responsible  than  them  all  put  to- 
gether— -the  ministry — preparation  for  the  minis- 
try— shall  I  attempt  it  or  not?  I  thought  my 
mind  on  that  subject  had  been  irrecoverably 
fixed ;  but  now  I  find  it  must  go  to  work  again. 

During  the  fall  and  winter  1  held  religious 
meetings  regularly  every  Sabbath,  at  one  place 
and  another,  and  I  think  nearly  every  other 
night  in  the  week,  around  at  different  points ; 
sometimes  four  or  five  miles  distant.  The 
labors  and  burdens  of  the  day,  which  were 
neither  few  nor  small,  frequently  disqualified 
me  for  this  night  service.     But  so  it  was  ;  the 


LIFE    01    DE.    OLELANDa 

calls  and  invitations  were  very  pressing   and 
numerous,  and  almost  irresistible, 

One  tender  incident  I  will  here  relate.  I  had 
an  appointment  one  night  about  live  miles  dis- 
tant, at  the  house  of  a  sick  man,  who  was  not 
religious.  As  usual  the  house  was  well  filled. 
I  used  no  book  on  these  occasions  but  the 
hymn-book ;  but,  nevertheless,  to  avoid  a  mere 
desultory  address,  I  generally  had  a  text  con- 
cealed as  a  nucleus  of  my  thoughts — -as  some 
called  it  afterward,  "Smothering  a  text"  Around 
this,  after  a  few  introductory  remarks,  was 
clustered  the  leading  thoughts  of  my  discourse. 
The  subject  that  night  was  God's  address  to 
ISToah,  Gen.  vii:  1,  "Come,  thou  and  thy  house, 
into  the  ark."  The  labors  of  the  clay  had  so 
oppressed  me  that  I  felt  an  unusual  heaviness — 
a  dragging— as  though  I  was  about  to  make  a 
failure.  The  services  concluded,  the  congre- 
gation dispersed,  and  I  departed  with  the  rest. 
On  my  way  home  I  fell  in  company  with  Miss 
Hundly,  younger  sister  of  Mrs.  Cunningham, 
before  alluded  to.  She  affectionately  inquired 
of  me  when  I  would  appoint  a  meeting  at  her 
father's  house,  particularly  on  her  mother's 
account,  who  was  greatly  afflicted  with  rheu- 
matic disease,  and  still  without  religious  influ- 
ence. My  reply  was  to  this  effect :  "  I  have 
been  thinking  probably  I  ought  to  make  no 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  73 

more  appointments  after  having  fulfilled  those 
I  have  on  hand."  She  inquired  the  reason  for 
such  a  determination.  My  unusually  depressed 
feeling  that  night  helped  to  dictate  my  reply, 
which  was,  that  "  I  felt  discouraged,  that  I  did 
not  know  that  I  was  doing  any  good,"  etc.,  etc. 
Her  reply  was,  and  I  shall  never  forget  it,  "If 
it  will  afford  any  relief  to  your  discouragement, 
I  can  inform  you  that  I  trust  the  Lord  has 
made  you  the  instrument  of  my  poor  soul's 
salvation."  I  was  too  much  affected  to  make 
any  reply,  and  very  shortly  our  roads  parted, 
and  I  was  left  to  wend  the  remainder  of  the 
road  home  alone.  It  was  a  starlight  night. 
My  road  lay  three  or  four  miles  through  a 
dense  forest.  I  can  scarcely  tell  how  I  got 
home.  Such  an  alternate  exercise  of  depres- 
sion and  extac}T — of  joy  and  humility — of  grat- 
itude and  grief!  I  had,  while  a  student  at 
Pisgah,  fully  set  it  down  in  my  own  mind  that 
should  I  ever  he  the  favored  instrument  in 
saving  one  soul,  that  would  be  reward  enough — 
all  I  would  ask — would  be  completely  satisfied. 
And  now,  lo  !  even  before  I  have  even  entered 
the  sacred  ministry,  here  is  the  tender  intima- 
tion ;  yea,  the  astonishing  annunciation,  or 
rather  the  overwhelming  declaration,  from  the 
lips  of  a  living  witness,  that   God  had  made 


74  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

me,  yes,  unworthy  me,  the  honored  instrument 
of  her  salvation.  Was  it  enough?  Was  I 
willing  to  stop  here,  as  having  an  ample 
reward  ?  E"o  answer  to  these  interrogatories  is 
necessary. 

During  the  winter  of  1801-2,  amid  a  pres- 
sure of  worldly  avocations,  with  alternate  ele- 
vations and  depressions  in  regard  to  my  present 
operations  and  future  prospects  and  underta- 
kings, my  meetings  were  continued  with  favor- 
able prospects,  particularly  on  Sabbath  days. 
Sometime  during  the  latter  end  of  the  winter, 
having  an  appointment  by  invitation  at  the 
house  of  a  Mr.  Webster,  one  of  my  auditors 
was  a  female  somewhat  advanced  in  years.  She 
informed  me  where  she  resided ;  said  that  she 
had  formerly  been  a  member  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  She 
expressed  an  earnest  desire  that  I  would  ap- 
point a  meeting  at  their  house.  I  did  so,  and 
gave  her  the  privilege  of  the  fourth  Sabbath  in 
March.  That  appointment  was  attended  with 
encouraging  prospects ;  so  much  so,  that  it  be- 
came, from  that  time  until  long  after  I  entered 
the  public  ministry,  the  stated  monthly  Sabbath 
of  my  attendance  there.  I  mention  this  cir- 
cumstance to  note  the  leadings  of  an  unerring 
and  overruling  Providence,  which  appears  to 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAXI*.  "('■) 

me,  at  this  distant  period,  free  from  all  obscurity 
and  intricacy.  Jt  will  be  more  fully  noticed  in 
the  proper  place. 

Tin'  text,  in  the  meantime,  which  had  been 

assigned  me  as  a  subject  for  consideration,  was 
not  forgotten.  I  examined  it  as  well  as  I  could. 
I  had  no  living  theological  instructor,  nor  had 
I  a  half-dozen  theological  hooks:  "Boston's 
Four-fold  Slate;"  "Booth's  Beign  of  Grace," 
and,  "Glad  Tidings,"  by  same  author,  with 
"  Edwards  on  the  Affections,"  and  Bike's  and 
Hayward's  "Cases  of  Conscience" — the  last 
two  being  of  a  casuistic  and  practical  character. 
The  nearest  to  a  system  of  divinity  was  "Fish- 
er's and  Erskine's  Explanation  of  the  Shorter 
Catechism,"  which  had  been  recommended  to 
me  by  the  Bresbytery  as  a  tolerably  good  out- 
line of  systematic  course  which  I  might  pur- 
sue. I  had  no  commentator  at  that  time.  After 
awhile  I  borrowed  Barkett  on  the  Xew  Testa- 
ment. I  sat  down,  however,  and  as  well  as  I 
could  (bunglingly  enough  to  be  sure)  wrote 
something  in  the  shape  of  a  sermon  on  that 
text.  Still  I  had  no  thought  that  it  was  for 
the  inspection  of  Bresbytery.  It  was  never 
transcribed. 

The  Presbytery  was  to  meet  early  in  April, 
1802,  at  Beaver  Creek  Church,  in  Barren  county, 
far  distant  from  my  residence.     I  had  rather 


76  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

come  to  the  conclusion  not  to  attend,  thinking 
that  I  ought  to  proceed  no  further  in  the  mat- 
ter ;  that  the  Presbytery,  as  yet,  had  no  par- 
ticular supervision  over  me,  and  that  I  had  no 
special  claim  on  them.  The  distance,  with  my 
numerous  and  pressing  secular  concerns,  aided 
no  little  to  help  me  to  this  conclusion  of  non- 
attendance.  But  Providence  ordered  otherwise. 
Joseph  B.  Lapsby,  an  amiable  young  man,  and 
nephew,  by  marriage,  had  just  graduated  at 
Lexington,  Va.,  and  was  on  his  way  to  appear 
before  Presbytery  as  a  candidate.  Being  a  great 
favorite  of  his  aunt,  my  wife,  and  both  anxious 
for  me  to  go  with  him  for  company,  etc.,  I 
called  my  mind  into,  action,  looked  over  my 
secular  affairs,  changed  my  purpose,  packed  up 
my  clothes,  barely  thought  to  take  my  rude 
manuscript  along — and  we  put  out. 

The  Presbytery  met  pursuant  to  adjourn- 
ment. Opened  wTith  sermon  by  moderator — 
constituted  with  prayer.  The  minutes  of  pre- 
vious session  were  read.  And  let  any  think  of 
my  surprise  when  I  heard  it  read  that  my  name 
was  enrolled  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry — 
had  been  examined,  etc.,  and  that  a  text  was  as- 
signed me  for  a  written  sermon,  and  which  was 
soon  called  for  to  be  read  before  tbe  Presbytery. 
With  some  hesitation  and  embarrassment,  as 
might  be  expected,  this  was  done.    The  custom 


LIFE    OF    nit.    CLBLAND.  77 

then  was  for  the  candidate,  and  all  who  were 
not  members,  to  retire,  while  remarks  on  the 
performance  were  made  with  closed  doors. 
This  was  done  in  my  case,  and  a  member  being 
appointed  (the  Rev.  David  Rice),  communi- 
cated to  me  privately  the  remarks  and  views  of 
the  Presbytery — that  my  performance  was  sus- 
tained as  a  part  of  trial,  and  another  assigned 
me  (Prov.  i :  23),  to  be  read  at  an  intermediate 
Presbytery,  to  be  held  early  in  the  fall  at  Tick 
Creek  (now  Mulberry)  Church,  Shelby  county, 
with  instructions  to  prepare  for  examination  on 
Latin  and  Greek,  etc.  As  for  the  study  of  theol- 
ogy, mixed  in  with  these  studies,  and  almost 
every  thing  else  in  domestic  life  that  could  be 
conceived  of,  there  was  nothing  said  about  it. 
I  must  shift  for  myself,  and  get  along  the  best 
way  I  could.  In  those  days  there  were  n'o 
education  societies,  no  theological  seminaries. 
The  custom  was,  if  any  young  man  wished  to 
study  theology,  and  prepare  for  the  ministry, 
he  must  get  in  privately  with  some  settled  min- 
ister, board  in  his  family  gratuitously,  perhaps, 
and  in  this  solitary  way  arrive  at  length  to  the 
pulpit.  But  even  this  privilege  was  denied  me. 
I  was  already  settled  in  domestic  life,  with  a 
destitute  family  depending  upon  me.  What 
time  I  could  have,  under  all  these  circum- 
stances and  privations,  to  study  divinity  and 


78  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

prepare  for  presbyterial  examination,  it  was  im- 
possible to  conceive.  Having  a  tenacious  mem- 
ory, it  was  not  difficult  for  me  to  retain  what  I 
had  read.  But  where  was  the  leisure  for  read- 
ing ?  Day  after  day  I  was  constantly  employed. 
I  had  to  take  the  lead  in  manual  labor,  as  well 
as  in  the  superintendence  of  domestic  affairs 
generally.  I  endeavored  to  redeem  any  hour  I 
could.  The  most  of  my  reading  was  by  candle- 
light, sometimes  an  hour  or  two  before  day, 
and  sometimes  late  in  the  night.  I  was  con- 
sidered a  good  proficient  in  Latin  and  Greek, 
I  had  paid  some  attention  to  Geometry,  Trigo- 
nometry, Euclid's  Elements,  etc.  I  procured 
and  read  Ferguson's  Astronomy,  Natural  Phi- 
losophy, Blair's  Rhetoric,  Witherspoon's  Moral 
Philosophy,  Elocution,  etc.  On  all  this  I  was 
examined,  and  sustained  without  any  difficulty. 

As  well  as  I  remember,  things  went  on  as 
well  as  usual  until  the  meeting  of  Presbytery 
at  Tick  Creek.  There  I  appeared  again  and 
was  examined  on  the  languages,  my  sermon 
read,  and  all  sustained  as  parts  of  trial  for 
licensure.  Another  text  was  given  me  for  a 
popular  sermon,  to  be  delivered  at  Presbytery 
in  the  spring.  Also  further  directions  were 
given  to  prepare  for  examination  on  Natural 
and  Moral  Science,  etc. 

Where  was  the  leisure  and  opportunity  for 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  79 

the  study  of  divinity  ?  This,  however,  must 
he  attended  to  somehow.  I  found  myself  ex- 
ceedingly deficient  in  Scriptural  knowledge,  as 

well  as  in  didactic  and  polemic  theology.    How 

in  my  circumstances  could  it  he  otherwise?  I 
had  not  been  religiously  brought  up — no  one  of 
the  family  had  professed  religion  hut  myself. 

If  licensed  the  ensuing  spring  I  must  expect 
to  go  through  a  pretty  extensive  examination. 
This  I  supposed  would  not  be  a  very  rigid  one, 
as  had  been  intimated,  sensible  of  my  great  de- 
ficiency in  Biblical  knowledge  and  other  attain- 
ments. There  was  one  text  that  rested  on  my 
mind  with  great  force  (Jas.  i :  5).  I  received  its 
instruction  implicitly,  trusted  in  it  with  the 
utmost  reliance,  and  derived  from  it  great 
benefit.  At  the  throne  of  grace  I  used  it  some- 
what in  this  manner:  Lord,  here  is  thy  servant, 
about  to  be  called  into  thy  service,  who  "  lacketh 
wisdom."  Thou  knowest  his  lack  of  wisdom, 
and  that  he  is  in  some  measure  sensible  of  his 
lack  of  wisdom.  '  Now,  Lord,  here  is  thy  prom- 
ise, "  If  any  man  lack  wisdom  let  him  ask  of 
God,  who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally,  and  up- 
hraideth  them  not,  and  it  shall  be  given  him." 
Now,  Lord,  I  do  from  my  very  heart,  sensible 
of  my  need,  ask  of  Thee  that  wisdom  which  it 
is  thine  to  give.  Do  not  call  me  into  thy  ser- 
vice, as  minister  to  thy  Church,  unless  thou  art 


80  LIFE   OF   DR.   CLELAND. 

pleased  to  bestow  it."  I  am  sure  I  never  did 
rely  with  more  confidence  upon  any  portion  of 
God's  word  than  I  did  on  this.  I  felt  a  stronger 
assurance  that  this  plea  would  he  granted  in 
some  way.  I  knew  it  would  not  be  without 
exertion  on  my  part.  I  was  not  to  expect  it  by 
miracle,  or  by  any  extraordinary  interposition 
from  heaven.  Satisfied  that  I  must  read  and 
study,  having  no  living  teacher  in  reach,  and 
without  a  library,  or  time  to  profit  by  it  if  I  had 
one,  my  prayer  was,  that  in  the  selection  of 
books,  as  my  means  might  enable  me  from  time 
to  time  to  procure,  I  might  be  directed  to  the 
right  sort,  and  prevented  from  procuring  any 
that  might  be  unprofitable  or  detrimental  to 
me.  In  this,  also,  I  have  abundant  reason  to 
believe  I  was  divinely  favored.  I  used  very 
faithfully  what  books  I  had,  as  well  as  those  I 
could  borrow. 

The  winter  season  had  passed  away;  the 
time  for  the  meeting  of  Presbytery  arrives.  I 
had  anticipated  that  meeting  with  considerable 
anxiety.  Then  my  expected  licensure  was  to 
take  place.  I  had  made  all  the  preparation 
for  examination  in  my  power.  I  had  prepared 
a  sermon  on  the  text  assigned  for  a  popular  dis- 
course (Rom.  xii :  3).  It  was  in  its  original 
state,  not  transcribed,  and  but  imperfectly 
memorised. 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  81 

Mr.  W"m.  Vance,  also  a  candidate  for  licen- 
sure, passed  examination  with  me — a  graduate 
from  Lexington  College,  Va.  Efis  sermon  on 
the  text  next  preceding  mine  was  first  called 
for,  and  mine  was  to  follow.  He  read,  and  was 
during  the.  performance  considerably  agitated. 
I  mse  after  him.  There  was  no  embarrass- 
ment, no  agitation — my  sermon  remained  in 
my  pocket.  I  delivered  it  without  much  diffi- 
culty; some  portions  were  filled  up  extempo- 
raneously, until  I  could  get  upon  the  track. 
Our  theological  examinations  heing  gone 
through  with,  we  were  both  licensed  at  the 
same  time,  April  14,  1803,  in  the  old  church  at 
Danville,  Mercer  county.  The  good  people  of 
this  and  the  churches  in  the  Forks  of  Dix  and 
Kentucky  rivers,  had  made  arrangements  for. 
Mr.  Vance's  stated  ministerial  services.  But 
in  this  they  were  disappointed;  for,  after  hav- 
ing preached  one  sermon,  as  introductory  to 
his  Labors,  to  each  of  these  churches,  he  was 
suddenly  called  from  time  to  eternity.  He  was 
a  young  man  of  promise,  and  teacher  of  an 
academy  in  Danville. 

His  death  caused  great  disappointment,  and 
T  shall  never  forget  the  peculiar  exercises  of 
my  own  mind,  contemplating  this  inscrutable 
providence.  I  felt  that  the  stroke  of  death  had 
fallen  on  one  just  at  my  side — on  one  my  supe- 


82  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

rior  in  literature  as  well  as  in  every  other  qual- 
ification for  the  Christian  ministry.  "Why  was 
the  smooth,  stately  olive-tree  cut  clown  so 
early,  while  the  rough,  unsightly  bramble,  was 
spared— more  like  a  cumberer  of  the  ground 
than  a  fruit-bearing  tree.  But  the  wisdom  of 
God  so  ordained  it.  Mr.  Vance  was  buried 
beside  the  admired  and  lamented  Cary  Allen, 
in  a  private  grave-yard,  near  the  head  of  Salt 
river. 

My  first  sermon  after  licensure  was  preached 
the  same  evening  at  Robert  Caldwell's,  one  of 
the  elders  of  the  church,  on  a  favorite  text : 
"  Come  thou  and  thy  house  into  the  ark."  This 
was  near  the  close  of  my  twenty-fourth  year. 
Being  now  a  licentiate,  I  preached  more  boldly, 
as  one  having  authority. 

By  invitation  I  preached  at  Springfield,  ten 
miles  north  of  my  residence,  and  at  Hardin's 
Creek,  now  Lebanon.  At  both  these  places,  or 
rather  at  Road's  Run,  near  the  former,  Rev. 
Terah  Templin  had  preached  as  their  pastor  ten 
years.  The  Road's  Run  church  had  become 
extinct,  and  in  my  early  ministerial  days  had 
been  reorganized  at  Springfield,  which  town 
had  but  recently  sprung  up.  The  other  church 
had  only  a  struggling  existence,  until  some 
years  afterward  it  was  resuscitated.  The  most 
encouraging  field  of  my  early  labors  was  about 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  83 

eight  miles  in  an  easterly  direction,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  good  lady's  before  alluded 
to,  at  whose  house  I  had  kept  up  a  regular 
monthly  appointment  every  fourth  Sabbath. 

It  was  here  a  church  was  gathered,  consisting 
of  the  aged  couple,  the  head  of  this  family, 
whose  names  were  Copeland,  and  seven  others, 
who  had  straggled  off  from  other  regions  and 
settled  here.  These  were,  early  in  the  summer 
of  1803,  while  I  was  yet  a  licentiate,  organized 
into  a  church,  called  Union,  by  Rev.  Samuel  B. 
Robertson,  the  nearest  minister,  now  pastor  of 
the  churches  of  Cane  Run  and  'New  Providence. 
These  nine  constituted  the  nucleus  around 
which  others  were  to  be  gathered.  The  meet- 
ing was  held  in  a  grove,  under  a  large  poplar 
and  other  shade  trees.  It  was  an  interesting 
time.  Fifteen  new  members  were  added  on  that 
occasion.  At  another  meeting,  in  the  fall  of 
the  same  year,  fifteen  more  were  added.  A 
small  frame  house  was  erected  on  the  same  spot 
which  I  have  seen  many  times  crowded  with 
attentive,  weeping,  rejoicing  persons  of  all 
classes.  Over  this  church  I  was  ordained  in 
October,  1804,  which  numbered  at  that  time,  or 
not  long  after,  over  one  hundred  members. 
They  were  poor,  and  not  able  to  invest  in  their 
call  for  my  labors  once  a  month  more  than 
$100. 


84  LIFE    OF  'DR.    CLELAND. 

As  I  had  all  along  supported  myself  by 
manual  labor,  and  still  was  compelled  so  to  do, 
I  thought  little  or  nothing  of  what  is  called 
ministerial  salary.  Indeed,  being  raised  up 
right  in  the  center  of  these  three  congregations, 
to  become  their  minister,  it  seemed  as  though 
I  naturally  belonged  to  them,  and  was  called  to 
preach  to  them,  without  much,  if  any,  pecuniary 
remuneration.  There  was  a  subscription  in  the 
Springfield  congregation  of  $40,  and  in  that  of 
Hardin's  Creek  of  $30,  and  in  the  collecting 
thereof  the  amount  fell  short  of  these  sums. 
From  a  review  of  my  memorandum  of  moneys 
kept  at  that  time,  I  did  not  receive,  on  an  aver- 
age, for  a  term  of  ten  years,  more  than  $150, 
including  salary,  private  donations,  marriage 
fees,  etc. 

The  declaration  of  Christ  to  the  Jews,  "  a 
prophet  is  not  without  honor,  save  in  his  own 
country,"  had  determined  me,  if  ever  called 
into  the  public  ministry,  to  remove  elsewhere. 
But  the  declaration  that  "there  are  many  de- 
vices in  man's  heart,  nevertheless  the  counsel 
of  the  Lord  shall  stand,"  was  forcibly  illus- 
trated in  my  case.  It  was  the  counsel  of  the 
Lord,  as  has  been  shewn,  that  I  should  be  sent 
as  a  messenger  to  my  own  neighbors,  with 
whom  I  labored  with  great  acceptance  and  suc- 
cess, for  the  space  of  ten  years. 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  85 

I  sometimes  preached  to  them  in  my  own 
private  dwelling,  as  well  as  others  in  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood.   At  Mr.  Cunningham's,  an 

elder  in  Union  church,  I  preached  regularly 
one  night  in  eaeh  week  for  three  years,  to  a 
regular,  undiminished  congregation. 

Having  one  Sabbath  not  regularly  occupied, 
but  to  employ  on  special  occasions  abroad,  as 
Providence  might  seem  to  require,  my  neigh- 
bors of  different  denominations  united  in  erect- 
ing a  large,  commodious  log-house,  as  a  neigh- 
borhood meeting-house,  common  to  all,  but 
especially  devoted  to  my  use,  whenever  I  could 
preach  there,  on  my  odd  Sabbath.  This  being 
central  to  my  other  places  of  preaching,  and 
not  having  any  regular  organization,  my  ap- 
pointments here  were  largely  attended,  and  the 
result,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  as  favorable,  and 
even  more  so,  than  at  any  other  place — my 
Union  Church  excepted.  This  house  was  called 
Bethel  for  some  years,  afterward  Bethel  Union, 
from  the  circumstance  that  part  of  the  Union 
being  set  off  for  convenience  to  the  Perry ville 
church,  the  other  part  below  were  organized 
at  Bethel,  with  some  from  Hardin's  Creek 
church,  and  assumed  the  appropriate  name  of 
Bethel  Union,  up  to  the  present  time. 

Shortly  after  my  licensure,  by  order  of  the 
Presbytery,  I  visited  several  of  our  southern 


8t>  LIFE    OF   DK.    CLELAND. 

counties,  particularly  Pulaski  and  Wayne.  I 
preached  every  day  and  night,  to  crowded,  at- 
tentive, and  weeping  congregations.  Many  of 
them  came  from  a  distance  to  hear  the  first 
Presbyterian  preacher  they  ever  heard  in  their 
whole  lives.  I  was  the  first  of  our  order  that 
had  ever  preached  in  that  region.  Many,  as  I 
learned,  had  been  greatly  prejudiced  against 
our  denomination.  They  had  been  taught  to 
believe  that  we  preached  altogether  from  "  the 
head  "—from  our  learning,  as  they  termed  it, 
and  not  from  the  heart.  But  when  they  had 
heard  for  themselves,  they  expressed  no  little 
surprise,  saying,  "Why,  he  preaches,"  said  one, 
"like  a  Baptist" — another,  "like  a  Methodist," 
and  still  another,  "  Why,  he  preaches  that  we 
must  be  born  again — he  preaches  up  experi- 
ence ! "  etc.  Bat  so  it  was.  Though  weak  and 
feeble — and  the  Lord  knows  it  was  weak  in- 
deed— many  heard,  repented,  believed,  and 
were  saved.  The  Lord  gave  his  unworthy 
young  servant  souls  for  his  hire,  in  that  wild 
and  destitute  region.  The  people  heard  in 
those  days  with  more  docility,  affection,  and 
readiness,  and  with  less  fastidiousness  than  they 
do  now.  Notwithstanding,  if  I  may  be  the 
judge,  one  of  my  sermons  now,  in  regard  to 
matter  and  manner  too,  is  intrinsically  worth 
more  than  a  half  dozen  at  least,  of  my  early 


LIFE   OF   DR.   CLELAND.  87 

efforts.  And  yet  one  of  those  sermons,  hardly 
deserving  the  name,  seemed  to  tell  with  more 
powerful  effeet  then,  than  a  half  a  dozen — even 
twice  that  number — do  now.  In  those  days 
my  "wild  notes"  seemed  to  have  more  effect 
than  all  my  "  set  music "  has  in  the  present 
times.  During  the  time  of  my  licensure,  from 
the  spring  of  1803  to  the  fall  of  1804,  I  had 
made  several  excursions  through  those  desti- 
tute settlements,  with  encouraging  success.  I 
preached  day  and  night,  from  place  to  place,  in 
any  house  and  neighborhood  where  the  people 
desired  it,  and  appointments  were  made. 

My  ordination  was  arranged  for  October, 
1804,  at  Union  meeting-house.  Rev.  Joshua 
L.  Willson  was  ordained  at  the  same  time,  as 
pastor  of  the  Bardstown  and  Big  Spring 
churches,  their  representatives  being  present 
to  sanction  it — an  extra  method  adopted  by  the 
Presbytery  on  account  of  the  great  difficulty 
and  impracticability  of  securing  a  quorum  in 
those  early  times. 

In  the  year  1805  he  performed  a  missionary 
tour  to  Vincennes,  Indiana,  of  which  he  gives 
this  account : 

"  Transylvania  Presbytery  had  no  definite 
limits,  in  a  southern  direction.  It  also  included 
Indiana,  etc.,  on  the  north.  In  the  spring  of 
1805  I  was  directed  to  visit  Vincennes  and  the 


88  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

adjoining  regions.  It  was  an  uninhabited  route 
I  had  to  go*  A  small  wilderness  trace,  with 
only  one  residence  on  the  way,  in  the  most  des- 
titute part  of  the  way,  to  entertain  me  during 
the  night.  Here  was  my  poor  animal  tied  to  a 
tree,  fed  with  the  grain  packed  in  a  wallet  from 
Louisville,  and  myself  stretched  on  the  punch- 
eon floor  of  a  small  cabin,  for  the  night's  rest. 
All  passed  off,  however,  without  any  detriment 
or  discomfort.  The  next  evening  made  up  for 
all  previous  privations.  I  was  welcomed  and 
agreeably  entertained  at  the  governor's  palace 
during  my  stay  at  Yincennes.  The  late  Wm. 
H.  Harrison,  then  a  young  man,  with  a  Pres- 
byterian wife,  was  governor  of  the  Indiana 
Territory,  as  it  then  was.  He  had  recently 
held  a  treaty  with  a  certain  tribe  of  Indians, 
who  assembled  at  Yincennes. 

The  first  sermon  I  preached — and  it  was  the 
first  ever  preached  in  the  place,  at  least  by  a 
Presbyterian  minister — was  in  the  council  - 
house,  but  a  short  time  before  occupied  by  the 
sons  of  the  forest.  I  preached,  also,  in  a  set- 
tlement twenty  miles  up  the  Wabash,  where 
were  a  few  Presbyterian  families,  chiefly  from 
Shelby  county,  Ky.  They  were  so  anxious  to 
have  me  settle  among  them  that  they  proffered 
to  send  all  the  way  to  Kentucky  to  remove  my 
family,  without  any  trouble  or  expense  to  my- 


LIFE    OF    DK.    CLELAND. 

!  esides  offering  me  a  generous  Bupport.  I, 
Bomehow  or  other,  from  the  beginning  of  do- 
mestic life,  bad  my  mind  determined  on  re- 
siding in  a  free,  State;  and  here  was  an  inviting 

prospect.  1  was  indeed  anxious  to  comply  with 
their  wishes.  But,  besides  the  heavy  contest 
for  my  land  with  old  Col.  Shelby,  now  in  pro- 
cess of  litigation,  the  Lord  was  showing  me 
special  favor  with  my  people  at  home  by  an 
unusual  blessing  upon  my  labors.  But  still 
they  were  not  willing  to  give  the  matter  up, 
and  that  we  might  have  a  little  more  time  to 
reflect  and  inquire  of  the  Lord  what  was  his 
will  and  pleasure  concerning  the  wished  for 
change  in  my  field  of  labor,  I  engaged  to  make 
them  a  returned  visit  the  next  year.  I  did  re- 
turn at  the  time  appointed.  The  prospect 
seemed  brighter  than  before.  I  was  welcomed 
on  all  sides,  by  men  of  the  world  as  wTell  as  by 
men  of  the  church.  And  what  was  more,  I 
was  welcomed  by  some  poor  sinners  too,  whom 
the  Lord  gave  me,  as  souls  for  my  hire.  And 
though  1  was  prevented  from  settling  among 
them,  for  the  reason  already  specified,  yet  for 
a  number  of  years  afterward  I  received  mes- 
sages from  those  who  claimed  me  as  their  spir- 
itual father;  and,  for  aught  that  I  know,  some 
remain  there  till  the  present  day." 


yO  LIFE    01'    L»K.    OLELAXL*. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

His  Plans  for  the  Diffusion  of  Religious  Knowledge — School 
of  the  Prophets — Removal  to  Mercer  County — The  First 
House  of  Worship  at  Harrodsburg  Destroyed — Built  and  Re- 
built— Erection  of  New  Providence  Meeting-house — Great 
Revival  of  1823-28,  and  its  Results. 

[The  methods  for  self-culture,  and  for  the 
diffusion  of  religious  knowledge  among  the 
people,  are  not  the  least  interesting  of  his  re- 
mi  niscenses.] 

In  the  year  1806  I  commenced  a  correspond- 
ence with  a  book-seller  in  Philadelphia  (W.  W. 
Woodward),  who  was  then  publishing  the  best 
theological  works  the  times  afforded,  and  from 
him  I  received  my  first  invoice  of  books,  amount- 
ing to  little  upward  of  nine  dollars.  It  was 
indeed  to  me  a  little  treasure.  Here  was  Guise's 
Paraphrase  of  the  New  Testament,  Brown's 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  Butterworth's  Con- 
cordance, and  Mason's  Student  and  Pastor. 
This  was  the  commencement  of  a  growing, 
select  library,  which  for  a  number  of  years 
afterward  wTas  pronounced  to  be  the  best  min- 
ister's library  in  the  whole  connection.  It  was 
gathered  gradually,  read  carefully,  and  digested 
thoroughly. 

I  soon  found  that  others  wanted  books  all 


LIFE    01    DR.    OLELANL.  91 

around  me.  I  endeavored  to  procure  them  at 
intervals,  until,  in  process  of  time,  the  amount 
of  invoices  Prom  that  one  man  was  upward  of 
§3,000.  The  prices  then  were  high,  and  so  was 
freight,  compared  with  what  they  are  now. 
The  little  discount  from  the  retail  price  of  books 
sold  my  neighbors,  enabled  me  to  increase  my 
library  gradually.  I  have  often  thought  my 
library  was  procured  in  answer  to  prayer;  and, 
besides  the  great  advantage  to  me,  I  soon  found 
that  the  books  I  scattered  abroad  were  of  not  a 
little  advantage  in  aiding  and  facilitating  my 
ministry  among  a  people  who  needed  good 
books  as  well  as  myself. 

What  time  I  could  spare  from  my  own  per- 
sonal labor,  which  seemed  necessary  at  par- 
ticular times  on  the  farm,  I  spent  in  reading  at 
home  and  itinerating  abroad,  in  distant  settle- 
ments. Indeed,  my  whole  field  might  justly 
be  called  missionary  ground. 

By  this  time  my  correspondence  with  my 
Philadelphia  bookseller  began  to  enlarge;  my 
little  stock  of  books  began  to  increase.  These 
I  almost  idolized.  Every  page  was  carefully 
read,  and  every  thing  new  and  important  was 
noted  down  on  a  blank  leaf.  From  this  course 
I  derived  great  benefit. 

By  my  own  suggestion  the  following  plan 
was  carried  out  at  Union.     A  small  box,  with 


92  LIFE    OP   DR.    CLELAND. 

lock  and  key,  was  fixed  under  the  pulpit  board, 
with  a  hole  above,  like  a  money  drawer,  into 
which  were  dropped  small  strips  of  paper,  with 
such  inquiries  as,  "What  is  the  meaning  of 
such  and  such  a  text?"  naming  the  chapter  and 
verse.  "How  do  you  reconcile  such  a  passage 
with  another  that  seems  to  contradict  it?" 
Sometimes  a  case  of  conscience  was  stated  for 
inquiry  and  advice.  These  papers  were  to  be 
anonymous,  for  reasons  that  are  obvious.  The 
benefit  would  accrue,  not  only  to  the  unknown 
individual,  but  others  would  become  interested. 
The  box  was  to  be  examined  every  day  of 
preaching,  the  papers  taken  out  and  read  pub- 
licly, and  the  answer  was  to  be  given  after  the 
close  of  the  sermon  the  next  day  in  course. 
This  arrangement  afforded  me  an  opportunity 
to  inform  myself  more  fully  about  some  of 
those  matters  that  I  was  not  prepared  to  answer 
right  away.  It  served  also,  no  doubt,  to  awaken 
inquiry  and  to  excite  investigation  and  increase 
attendance  at  the  house  of  God.  This  device 
I  found  to  be  of  considerable  service  to  myself. 
There  were  matters  brought  up  in  this  way  that 
I  had  never  thought  of,  and  which  occasioned 
no  little  research  and  investigation,  in  order  to 
find  out  the  solution.  The  very  first  draw  I 
made  contained  some  five  or  six  strips,  one  of 
which  presented  some  half-dozen  apparent  con- 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CL ELAND.  93 

tradictiona  in  the  Bible  to  be  reconciled.  This 
little  instruction  was  attended  to  for  some  time, 
and  became  very  interesting,  both  to  pastor  and 
people. 

[It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Cleland's  house 
became  "a  school  of  the  prophets"  before  the 
establishment  of  theological  seminaries,  and 
that  several  of  those  who  took  rank  among1  the 
most  useful  Presbyterian  ministers  in  the  West, 
pursued  their  professional  studies  under  his 
direction.  We  subjoin  such  notices  of  this  part 
of  his  labors  as  are  contained  in  the  manu- 
script.] 

In  those  days  there  were  no  education  so- 
cieties, no  theological  seminaries — none  of  the 
benevolent  institutions  and  facilities  for  the 
promotion  of  literature  and  an  educated  min- 
istry, as  are  every  where  to  be  found  at  the 
present  day ;  and,  moreover,  there  were  very 
few  pious  young  men  any  where  to  be  found, 
who  appeared  willing  to  set  their  laces  in  that 
direction.  The  General  Assembly  saw  the 
great  scarcity  of  ministers  in  her  connection, 
and  but  little  prospect  of  a  sufficient  number 
coming  forward  to  supply  the  annual  decrease 
occasioned  by  death.  The  Assembly  seeing 
this,  and  having  no  other  remedy  to  afford, 
recommended  most  urgently  on  each  Presby- 
tery to  look  out  within    their  bounds   for  at 


94  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

least  one  poor  and  pious  youth,  who  might  be 
induced  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  gospel  min- 
istry, and  if  they  thought  him  a  desirable  object 
for  selection,  to  patronize  him,  induce  the 
churches  to  help,  and  to  do  any  thing  they 
could  in  this  way  to  enlarge  the  number  of  the 
ministry — without  which  they  must  soon  be 
found  fast  diminishing. 

The  first  young  man  of  this  description  within 
the  bounds  of  Transylvania  Presbytery  was  Na- 
than H.  Hall.  He  was  the  son  of  a  respectable 
Baptist  preacher ;  but  professing  religion  among 
the  Presbyterians,  at  the  same  time  conceiving 
a  preference  for  their  doctrinal  views  and  mode 
of  worship,  he  applied  for  admittance  to  mem- 
bership at  Danville,  in  the  spring  of  1802,  on  a 
sacramental  occasion  held  in  a  grove  in  the 
suburbs  of  the  town.  There  he  was  received 
and  publicly  baptized  at  the  stand,  in  the  open 
air,  and  before  a  large  congregation.  After 
going  from  one  place  to  another,  in  pursuit  of 
a  literary  education,  he  was  at  length  placed 
under  my  supervision. 

The  number  of  young  men,  from  first  to  last, 
who  were  under  my  supervision,  as  students  of 
divinity,  were  some  fourteen  or  fifteen,  viz :  K". 
H.  Hall,  John  P.  Morel  and,  Jas.  0.  Barnes, 
Chas.  Phillips,  Saml.  Wilson,  John  H.  Brown, 
Wm,  Dixon,  Robt.  L.  Mafee,  Wm.   H.  For- 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  95 

sythe,  Robt,  Hamilton,  David  Todd,  Robt. 
Caldwell,  F.  R.  Gray,  Joshua  II.  Wilson,  and 
G.  Moore.  All  are  yet  living  except  three, 
viz:  Hamilton,  Moreland  and  Wilson.  The 
last  never  reached  the  pulpit.  Some  of  these 
young  men  were  with  me  six  months,  some 
twelve,  and  others  two  years.  Some  were  in 
indigent  circumstances,  and  received  their 
board,  etc.,  gratuitously ;  some  at  half  price,  or 
as  suited  their  circumstances  or  convenience. 
I  mention  this  fact  for  no  other  purpose  but 
the  glory  of  God,  which  will  be  adverted  to  at 
the  proper  place  below.  My  circumstances  were 
by  no  means  affluent;  my  salary,  if  it  deserved 
the  name,  quite  small  and  inadequate ;  my  chief 
dependence  being  my  own  barn  and  store-house. 
My  wife  manufactured  the  most  of  our  domestic 
wear  for  ordinary  purposes ;  our  family,  too, 
was  at  an  age  to  demand  increased  attention 
and  expense.  We  were  compelled  to  use  the 
strictest  economy,  both  as  to  time  and  means ; 
yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  things,  we  had 
no  lack;  we  sat  under  our  own  vine  and  fig- 
tree,  enjoying  peace  and  plenty.  I  never  had 
had  an  empty  pocket,  entirely,  since  I  had  com- 
menced domestic  life. 

[He  moved  to  Mercer  county  to  take  charge 
of  New  Providence  Church,  in  1813.  He  thus 
sums  up  his  life  and  labors  up  to  that  period.] 


96  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

And  now  I  bid  farewell,  as  a  citizen,  to 
"Washington  county,  where  I  spent  twenty-three 
years  of  my  most  vigorous  and  active  life;  and 
may  I  not  say,  the  most  eventful  and  impor- 
tant, responsible  and  critical  portion  of  my 
whole  life  ?  Between  seven  and  eight  years  I 
was  on  father's  farm  in  the  day,  and  among 
the  wolves  and  wild-cats  at  night.  Between 
three  and  four  years  away  from  home  in  pur- 
suit of  various  studies ;  two  years  a  public  ex- 
horter,  and  ten  years  a  licensed  and  ordained 
preacher,  I  was  now  within  a  month  or  so  of 
being  85  years  old.  The  good  people  of  Spring- 
field and  Hardin's  Creek  parted  from  me  re- 
luctantly. But  as  they  gave  me  but  a  trifling 
pittance  for  my  support,  they  could  not  urge 
me  to  remain,  and  feel  that  I  was  under  any 
obligation  to  do  so.  The  place  where  Lebanon 
stands  was  occupied  by  one  dwelling  and  a 
horse-mill.  Between  me  and  my  hearers,  pro- 
fessors and  non -professors,  there  was  not  one 
jarring  note  of  discord,  no  hostility,  or  bad 
feeling.  ~Not  a  man  or  woman,  or  child,  either 
white  or  black,  saint  or  sinner,  in  either  of 
those  churches,  or  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood, where  I  was  in  a  measure  brought  up, 
could  have  been  found,  as  ever  I  knew,  to  lift 
up  a  silent  finger  in  approbation  of  my  depart- 
ure.    I  make  no  boast  of  this  from  any  thing 


LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND.  !•< 

uncommon  in  me,  more  than  in  other  i 
But  I  must  and  do  ascribe  all  to  the  mercy  and 
goodness  of  God,  that  hath  followed  me  from 
the  beginning,  and  taught  me  long  since  and 
forever  to  say,  "By  the  grace  of  God  I  am 
what  I  am." 

[The   narrative  of  h;s  labors  in  his  new  field 
is  in  these  words.] 

I  arrived  in  Mercer  county  the  31st  of  March , 
1813.  Having  no  house  ready  for  our  recep- 
tion, we  occupied  one  temporarily,  belonging 
to  my  brother-in-law,  John  Armstrong.  I  had 
bought  me  a  small  farm  of  168  acres,  contiguous 
to  the  church,  New  Providence.  It  was  all  in 
forest  except  a  few  acres.  A  few  logs  were 
collected  to  build  me  a  house.  I  had  accepted 
a  unanimous  call,  with  §250  engaged  for  my 
support,  from  the  united  congregations  of  New 
Providence  and  Cane  Run,  recently  under  the 
care  of  Rev.  Saml.  B.  Robertson,  who,  after 
being  their  pastor  for  ten  years,  left  them  in  a 
very  declining  condition.  Nearly  one-fifth  of 
this  amount,  small  as  it  was,  I  did  not  realize. 
I  had  assisted  the  pastor  of  these  churches  so 
long  and  so  often,  as  well  as  having  married  in 
an  extensive  connection  in  one  of  them,  that  I 
was  almost  as  familiar  with  the  people  as  the 
pa-tor  himself.  Hence  the  great  unanimity  in 
lo 


98  LIFE   OF   DR.   CLELAND. 

the  invitation,  which,  however,  does  not  so  well 
harmonize  with  their  liberality. 

After  laboring  much  with  my  own  hands, 
preparing  material  for  building,  quarrying  rock 
for  foundation  and  chimneys,  and  clearing 
ground,  fencing,  etc.,  etc.,  in  all  of  which  I  took 
a  large  share,  I  entered  my  new  dwelling,  the 
same  I  still  occupy,  in  September  of  the  same 
year. 

I  entered  on  my  pastoral  duties  in  the  Xew 
Providence  Church  the  first  Sabbath  in  April, 
1813.  My  stated  times  of  preaching  were  the 
first  and  third  Sabbath  in  each  month,  the  second 
at  Cane  Run,  and  fourth  at  Union,  which  being 
in  Mercer  county,  I  had  not  given  up  when  I 
left  Washington  county,  and  which  I  continued 
to  occupy  three  years  longer.  But  finding  it 
too  distant  (20  miles)  and  inconvenient,  I  re- 
linquished, not  without  a  considerable  struggle, 
a  field  I  had  so  long  cultivated  and  a  people 
near  my  heart,  if  not  like  Paul's  beloved  Phil- 
lippians,  uppermost  in  my  affections ;  where  I 
had  enjoyed  so  many  precious  seasons,  and 
where,  I  trust,  I  had  gained  over  so  many  souls 
to  Christ.  But  the  indications  of  Providence 
seemed  to  require  it,  and  I  gave  them  over  to 
the  pastoral  care  of  Pev.  Terah  Templin. 

The  Sabbath  that  I  had  employed  there  was 


LIFE    01    DR.    CLBLAND.  99 

engaged  by  a  Bmall  church  of  the  Dutch  Rc- 
formed,  four  miles  south  of  Elarrodsburg.  For 
my  services  they  paid  me  promptly  $50,  in 
semi-annual  installments.  Tins  church,  after 
awhile,  became  extinct,  as  a  separate  organiza- 
tion, and  was  amalgamated  with  others,  prin- 
cipally with  the  Presbyterians  in  their  vicinity. 

Ilavii  s  assumed  a  regular  pastoral  relation 
by  installment,  October  4th,  Sabbath,  1813,  over 
the  New  Providence  and  Cane  Run  churches, 
I  required  of  the  elders  the  number  and  the 
names  of  the  members.  I  soon  ascertained 
that  they  had  kept  no  sessional  records — not 
even  a  register  of  church  members  or  of  bap- 
tized  children.  The  deficiency  was  supplied, 
in  a  measure,  by  personal  knowledge  of  the 
individual  members.  The  number  of  members 
in  New  Providence  church  at  that  time  was 
77,  and  of  Cane  Run  50 ;  and  ten  years  after, 
under  my  ministry,  there  were  numbered  in 
New  Providence   church  just  77  more. 

After  the  old  revival  in  1800-1803,  there 
had  been  an  awful  spiritual  dearth  in  all  the 
churches,  many  churches  receiving  very  tew, 
some  no  accessions  at  all,  for  upward  of  twenty 
years.  During  that  whole  time  no  revival  was 
known  through  the  whole  limits  of  Kentucky, 
unless  it  may  have  been,  now  and  then,  among 
other  denominations. 


100  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

The  old  church  at  Cane  Eun  became  so  much 
decayed  as  to  be  incapable  of  sheltering  a  con- 
gregation with  comfort;  and  being  also  much 
environed  with  plantations,  making  it  difficult 
of  access.  Besides,  the  majority  of  the  con- 
gregation being  on  the  west  side  of  Salt  Elver, 
it  was  concluded  to  move  the  place  of  preach- 
ing to  Harrodsburg.  This  arrangement  was 
made  in  1816.  The  town  of  Harrodsburg  was 
then  very  small ;  the  buildings  few  and  very 
inferior ;  there  being  only  one  brick  dwelling 
and  the  old  stone  court-house,  where  we  held 
worship,  until  a  more  suitable  building  could 
be  put  up.  This  was  done  by  a  union  and  co- 
operation of  the  trustees  of  the  seminary  and 
the  building  committee  of  the  church.  It  was 
soon  found,  on  account  of  the  inconvenience  of 
the  location,  and  the  limited  dimensions  of  the 
house,  with  a  rapidly  increasing  congregation, 
that  it  would  not  answer  the  desired  purpose; 
and  while  contemplating  a  new  arrangement, 
the  Lord  sent  a  strong  north-wester,  which 
overturned  the  whole  building,  and  razed  it  to 
the  ground.  This  occurred  on  the  8th  of  March, 
1819,  being  Sabbath-day,  but  providentially,  at 
a  time  not  occupied. 

By  this  unexpected  event  we  were  thrown 
back  into  the  old  court-house.  I  concluded 
that  my  ministry  must  soon  terminate  with  this 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  101 

people,  principally  for  the  want  of  a  suitable 
house  of  worship.  The  first  sermon  I  preached 
on  our  retreat  to  the  old  house  was  from  1 
Chron.  xvii:  1,  "David  said  unto  Nathan,  be- 
hold I  dwdl  in  an  house  of  cedars,  but  the  ark  of 
the  covenant  of  the  Lord  remaineth  under  curtains  " 
This  discourse  was  prepared  expressly  for  the 
occasion,  and,  as  I  learned  afterward,  had  a 
most  powerful  and  salutary  effect  upon  the 
minds  of  the  audience,  in  influencing  them  to 
build  a  house  for  the  ark  of  the  covenant.  It 
was,  I  believe,  this  simple  effort,  as  appeared  in 
the  result,  which  ultimately  secured  the  erec- 
tion of  the  brick  church,  so  long  occupied  by 
that  people. 

The  Xew  Providence  church  was  erected 
partly  by  subscription  and  partly  by  the  sale  of 
pews.  In  this  edifice  I  invested  out  of  my 
scanty  means  $150,  which  I  have  no  cause  to 
regret  even  to  this  day,  and  the  lack  of  which 
I  never  felt — the  Lord  amply  supplying  me 
from  other  sources.  In  this  church  I  have 
labored  just  thirty-five  years,  from  April  1st, 
1813,  to  April  1st,  1848 — one-half  of  my  time, 
first  and  third  Sabbath  in  each  month. 

A  minute  history  of  this  whole  period,  in 
this  and  the  Ilarrodsburg  church,  to  whom  I 
preached  in  all  twenty-six  years,  when  I  volun- 
tarily gave  up  this  charge  to  the  present  in  cum- 


L02  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

bent  (Eev.  John  Montgomery),  would  of  itself 
make  a  small  volume.  My  withdrawal  was  on 
account  of  advancing1  age  and  inconvenience, 
not  being  able,  at  the  distance  of  seven  miles, 
to  perform  pastoral  duties,  and  to  render  ade- 
quate services  for  the  benefit  of  the  growing 
town  and  congregation.  There  was  no  discord 
between  me  and  the  church  from  the  beginning; 
they  greatly  desired  my  continuance,  and  re- 
moval to  the  town.  By  my  permission  the 
effort  was  made,  but  the  indications  of  Provi- 
dence  did  not  justify  such  an  arrangement. 
Time  has  shown  what  was  the  will  of  Provi- 
dence in  regard  to  my  future  labors  and  fields 
of  usefulness,  I  have  great  reason  to  be  humble 
and  thankful  for  the  many  signal  favors  and 
blessings  the  Lord  hath  bestowed  upon  me 
during  my  ministry  in  Harrodsburg  Church. 
Many  happy  seasons  have  I  witnessed  there, 
and  many  seals  were  added  to  my  ministry. 

About  the  year  1823  we  may  date  the  com- 
mencement of  a  noiseless,  gentle,' and  gradual 
revival  of  religion  in  the  New  Providence 
church,  which  continued  without  any  percept- 
ible abatement  for  six  or  seven  years,  during 
which  time  there  were  added  240  members. 
The  congregation  was  large  and  extensive,  and 
mostly  of  a  Presbyterian  character.  There  had 
been  a  small  increase   of  77  members,  during 


LIFE    OF    DB.    CLBLA]  LOS 

the  ten  first  yours  of  my  ministry.  Of  these 
not  more  than  a  dozen  wore  of  the  youth  of 
the  congregation,  now  quite  numerous.  Our 
sacramental  seasons  were  quarterly,  after  the 
completion  of  our  now  house.  The  communi- 
cants occupied  the  pews  during  the  administer- 
ing the  ordinance,  instead  of  t lie  slab  tables  and 
benches,  as  formerly.  The  use  of  tokens  was 
also  dispensed  with,  to  the  great  satisfaction 
and  convenience  of  pastor  and  people.  By  the 
old  plan  much  time  was  consumed,  so  that  in 
the  preaching,  baptizing,  administering  the 
elements,  etc.,  five  hours  were  consumed. 

The  first  year  of  the  revival  some  dozen  (all 
married  persons)  were  added  to  the  church. 
After  that  as  many  more,  and  sometimes 
double  that  number,  at  each  periodical  com- 
munion. In  giving  an  account  of  their  con- 
version, they  ascribed  it,  from  first  to  last,  to 
the  preaching  of  the  word;  they  could  specify 
the  sermon  the  pastor  preached,  either  at  the 
church  or  elsewhere. 

But  ere  long  the  good  work  commenced  in 
among  the  young  people,  and  ceased  not  until 
they  were  nearly  all  gathered  into  the  church — 
not  one  young  female  in  the  whole  congrega- 
tion of  New  Providence  was  left  out,  and  not 
more  than  a  half  dozen  of  the  youth  of  the  other 
sex. 


104  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

Dunns:  the  half  of  these  meetings  I  minis- 
terecl  alone ;  but  this  seemed  to  make  no  change. 
We  never  occupied  more  than  four  days. 
During  these  occasions  I  preached  six  or  seven 
sermons  without  exhaustion,  or  even  fatigue. 
These  were  often  our  most  precious  seasons. 
We  knew  nothing  of  protracted  meeting,  so 
common  in  these  days.  The  churches  of  New 
Providence  and  Harrodsburg  grew  up  gradu- 
ally in  this  way,  and  much  faster  than  they 
have  done  since — the  converts  showing  to  better 
advantage,  exhibiting  more  piety,  stability,  and 
consistency. 

Great  changes  since  then  have  taken  place  in 
New  Providence  Church.  The  congregation  is 
not  as  compact  and  uniform  as  formerly.  A 
number  of  our  oldest  members  and  their  fami- 
lies emigrated  to  the  newer  States,  while  their 
old  homesteads  passed  into  the  hands  of  new 
owners,  who,  many  of  them,  do  not  sympathize 
with  us  in  our  religious  views.  Nearly  all  the 
young  people  married  and  scattered  off,  here 
and  there,  which  has  made  a  considerable  chasm. 
Quite  a  number  of  them  I  have  married  the 
second,  and  some  even  the  thirel  time,  since  I 
have  been  here.  About  seven  hundred  members 
have  been  enrolled  upon  the  records  of  the 
New  Providence   Church.     There  were   seven 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  105 

young  men  from  this  church  that  entered  the 
ministry,  live  of  whom  are  still  living. 

Since  writing  the  above  imperfect  account  I 
have  had  the  means  of  obtaining  more  accurate 
information  concerning  the  glorious  ingather- 
ing into  the  churches  of  New  Providence  and 
Harrodsburg.  To  the  former  church  there 
were  added  in  1823,  16;  in  1824,  12;  in  1825, 
28;  in  1826,  46;  in  1827,  62;  in  1828,  45;  in 
1829,  31.  In  all,  240  in  seven  years.  I  have 
never  known  of  any  revival  continued  so  long 
without  abatement  or  intermission:  "It  is  the 
Lord's  doings,  and  marvellous  in  our  eyes." 

The  revival  in  Harrodsburg  church  made  its 
first  appearance  on  Sabbath  morning,  May  27, 
1826,  during  the  public  reception  of  Alfred 
Robertson,  a  youthful  son  of  Dr.  Robertson, 
who  had  united  with  the  church  a  short  time 
before.  From  that  time  till  the  end  of  the 
year  were  added  42;  in  1827,  85;  in  1828,  46. 
Total  in  three  years  173.  Oh  !  what  precious 
seasons,  during  that  long  period,  have  I  seen 
and  enjoyed  in  both  these  churches!  Could  I 
but  witness  the  like  again,  like  Simeon  I  would 
say,  "Xow,  Lord,  let  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace." 


11 


106  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 


CHAPTER     VII. 

New  Providence  Church — Its  Early  Settlers — Mammoth  Skel- 
etons— Wild  Game — Privations — A  Signal  Providence — Pre- 
parations for  Removal  from  Virginia — Loss  of  Provisions 
— Detention — Emigrate  1779 — Cold  Winter — Expedition 
against  the  Indians — Joseph  McCoun  Burnt  at  the  Stake- 
Indians  Attack  McAffee  Station — Heroic  Defense — The  Am- 
bush Battle  of  Blue  Licks — Rev.  David  Rice — Origin  of  New 
Providence  Church — Accession — Great  Revival,  1800 — Rev. 
Samuel  B.  Robertson — Mr.  Cleland  becomes  Pastor  of  New 
Providence  and  Cane  Run  Churches. 

[The  following  history  of  the  first  settlement 
on  Salt  River,  and  of  the  establishment  of  New 
Providence  Church,  is  from  the  pen  of  Gen'l 
Robert  B.  McAfee,  son  of  Robt.  McAfee,  sen., 
one  of  the  five  w7ho  first  settled  on  the  banks 
of  Salt  River.  He  served,  with  distinction,  in 
the  war  of  1812.  He  was  an  intelligent  and 
devoted  Christian,  and  for  many  years  a  very 
influential  ruling  elder  in  New  Providence 
Church.  To  this  church,  in  part,  Dr.  Cleland 
devoted  forty-five  years  of  his  ministerial  life. 
This  fact,  and  the  stirring  scenes  herein  record- 
ed, entitle  this  chapter  to  a  place  in  this  con- 
nection, and  invest  it  with  peculiar  interest.] 

On  the  10th  day  of  May,  1773,  a  com- 
pany of  men,  consisting  of  James,  George, 
and   Robert    McAfee,  James    McCoun,  junr., 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLBLAND.  107 

and  Samuel  Adams,  having  been  informed, 
by  the  report  of  some  hunters. jand  Indians,  that 
there  was  a  rich  and  delightful  tract  of  land  to 
the  west  on  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  River,  open- 
ing a  wide  field  to  enterprising  persons,  left 
their  places  of  residence  on  Sinking  Creek, 
Bottetourt  county,  in  the  then  colony  of  Vir- 
ginia, for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the  country, 
and  seeking  out  places  for  their  future  resi- 
dence. They  were  fully  aware  of  the  dangers 
and  difficulties  to  be  encountered  ;  but  they 
were  men  inured  to  hardships,  bold  and  enter- 
prising. The  prospect  of  future  fortunes,  the 
honor  of  being  the  first  adventurers  in  the 
wilds  of  this  western  wilderness,  and  a  confi- 
dent reliance  upon  the  preserving  care  of  Pro- 
vidence, sustained  and  animated  them  during 
their  long  and  dangerous  voyage.  They  all 
had  families,  except  Samuel  Evans,  who  had 
not  yet    reached  the  age  of   manhood. 

This  company  fell  in  with  Thomas  Bui  lit  and 
Hancock  Taylor,  two  surveyors,  who,  with 
their  companies,  were  about  to  descend  the 
Ohio  River  for  the  purpose  of  surveying  the 
"Proclamation  warrants"  of  1763,  which  were 
at  that  time  authorized  to  be  surveyed  on  the 
Western  waters.  "  The  McAfee  Company," 
as  they  were  called,  struck  across  the  country 
to  New  River  (Kenawhee),  and  descended  in  a 


108  life;  of  dr.  cleland. 

canoe  to  its  mouth.  On  the  28th  of  May,  1773, 
they  met  the  company  of  Bullit  and  Taylor,  on 
New  River,  about  twenty  miles  above  its  mouth. 
The  two  companies  remained  at  the  mouth  of 
New  River  until  the  first  clay  of  June,  where 
Capt.  Thos.  Bullit,  their  chosen  leader,  left 
them  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  Shawnee 
nation  of  OhillicOthe,  on  the  Scioto,  and  the 
balance  of  the  company  descended  the  Ohio  in 
a  boat  and  four  canoes.  On  the  14th  day  of 
June  Capt.  Bullit  met  them  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Scioto,  with  the  intelligence  that  a  friendly 
intercourse  had  been  established  with  that  na- 
tion, who  laid  claim  to  all  that  country  upon 
which  this  company  was  about  to  settle. 

They  then  descended  the  Ohio,  and  made  a 
number  of  surveys  on  the  bottoms  adjoining 
the  river,  until  they  arrived  opposite  Big-bone 
Lick,  which  they  visited  on  July  5th,  where  a 
great  number  of  the  skeletons  of  the  mammoth 
were  found  entire.  The  rib  bones  they  used 
for  tent  poles,  and  the  disjointed  back  bones  for 
stools.  There  were  several  Delaware  Indians 
in  company  on  this  day,  and  James  McAfee 
addressed  one  of  them  who  appeared  to  be 
about  70  years  of  age,- and  asked  him  if  he 
knew  how  the  bones  came  to  be  there,  or  if  he 
knew  what  kind  of  an  animal  they  belonged  to  ? 

His  reply  was,  "when  I  first  came  here,  then 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  109 

a  boy,  these  bones  were  just  as   you   now  see 

them." 

The  McAfee  company  then  proceeded  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Levisa  (Kentucky)  River;  to  the 
mouth  of  Drennon  Creek,  and  up  that  creek  to 
the  Lick.  The  number  of  buffaloes,  deer  and  elk, 
at  the  Lick,  was  astonishing.  The  roads  round 
about  the  Lick  were  as  much  beaten  as  those 
near  a  populous  city.  The  company  took  one  of 
these  roads  and  crossed  the  Kentucky  river 
just  below  Frankfort,  but  turned  up  the  river 
and  surveyed  the  bottom  on  which  Frankfort 
now  stands,  the  first  survey  ever  made  on  this 
river.  They  crossed' over  from  thence  to  Salt 
River,  and  on  the  27th  day  of  July  a  survey 
was  made  for  James  McAfee,  including  the 
place  where  jStc\v  Providence  church  now 
stands. 

Having  completed  their  survey,  July  31st, 
the  company  started  home,  steering  nearly 
a  southeastern  course  across  Dix  River.  It 
commenced  raining,  and  the  company  pro- 
ceeded up-  Kentucky  River,  exposed  to  great 
hardship  and  fatigue  for  want  of  provisions, 
having  to  depend  alone  upon  what  they  could 
kill  for  their  sustenance.  For  several  days 
they  made  out  to  procure  meat — the  only  food 
they  had,  and  on  the  5th  day  of  August  they 
reached  the  forks  of  the  Kentucky  River,  at 


110  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

which  time  it  was  very  difficult  to  find  any 
kind  of  wild  game.  The  12th  day  of  August 
was  a  gloomy  day  to  that  little  band  of  pion- 
eers. They  were  crossing  the  head  branches  of 
Kentucky  River  to  the  waters  of  Chuck  River, 
in  a  region  of  country  which  seemed  to  be  the 
abode  of  desolation.  Nothing  but  barren  rocks 
presented  themselves  on  any  hand.  Silence 
and  solitude  reigned  on  every  side.  Not  a  liv- 
ing thing  was  to  be  seen.  They  had  not  a 
mouthful  to  eat  for  two  days.  They  were  liter- 
ally starving  to  death.  Their  feet  were  blister- 
ed, their  limbs  torn  with  briers  and  cragged 
rocks,  and  all  under  a  broiling  sun.  Every 
thing  combined  to  furnish  a  scene  enough  to 
appall  the  strongest  heart.  The  sun  of  the  third 
day  was  about  to  set  behind  the  mountains, 
leaving  them  utterly  destitute  of  food  and  water. 
A  part  of  their  company,  from  utter  exhaustion, 
threw  themselves  upon  the  ground  and  said 
they  could  go  no  further.  Those  who  still  re- 
tained more  strength  urged  them  to  strive  to  go 
•further,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  At  length, 
Robt.  McAfee,  as  a  last  effort  of  despair,  deter- 
mined to  cross  over  the  point  of  the  next  ridge, 
to  see  if  he  could  find  any  thing  to  kill. 

The  sun  was  now  gilding  the  highest  points 
of  the  adjacent  mountains  with  his  setting 
beams,  when  the  Almighty  hand  interposed  for 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELANL.  Ill 

their  relief.  Kobt.  McAfee  had  not  proceeded 
more  than  one  quarter  of  a  mile  across  the 
ridge,  and  was  approaching  to  a  small  branch  a 
few  rods  before  him,  when  he  saw  a  small  spike 
buck  about  fifty  yards  before  him.  Joy,  anxi- 
ety and  desperation  filled  his  heart. 

Being  an  excellent  marksman,  he  fired,  and 
the  buck  fell.  lie  was  upon  him  in  a  moment. 
The  rest  of  the  company  soon  came  up ;  so 
great  wTas  their  joy  at  the  sound  of  his  gun 
that  they  forgot  their  fatigue.  The  creek  af- 
forded them  water,  and  they  soon  prepared 
their  savory  meal,  wh'ich  was  devoured  with  the 
keenest  relish  ;  while  their  hearts  were  poured 
out  in  thankfulness  to  that  kind  Providence 
that  had  saved  them  from  the  very  jaws  of 
death. 

It  was  on  account  of  this  and  other  signal 
deliverances  showed  them  afterward,  that  these 
Christian  pioneers  were  influenced  to  erect  a 
house  of  worship  in  the  wilderness,  and  conse- 
crate it  to  that  kind  Providence  which  had  pre- 
served them  in  their  many  extremities. 

Shortly  after  this  they  reached  their  homes 
in  safety,  and  gave  an  accurate  account  of  what 
they  had  seen  in  the  western  wilderness,  which 
inflamed  the  minds  of  all  that  heard  them  with 
a  desire  to  go  to  a  land  represented  to  them  as 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 


112  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELANB. 

They  did  not  return  in  1774  to  take  posses- 
sion of  their  lands,  in  consequence  of  hostility 
among  the  Indians. 

In  1775,  the  company  above  named,  with 
two  others,  David  Adams  and  John  Higgins, 
returned  early  in  March,  and  cleared  two  acres 
of  ground  at  McAfee's  station,  intending  to 
raise  corn  and  prepare  to  remove  their  fam- 
ilies, but  were  prevented  by  the  hostility  of  the 
Indians. 

In  the  meantime  James  Harrod  and  com- 
pany built  a  fort  at  Harrodsburg,  and  opened  a 
farm  near  the  fort. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year  Robert,  William  and 
George  McAfee,  John  McGee,  David  Adams, 
John  McCoun  and  others,  cleared  fifteen  acres 
of  land  on  the  farm  of  James  McConn,  about 
one  mile  northwest  of  New  Providence  meet- 
ing-house, at  the  mouth  of  Armstrong's  Branch, 
and  in  the  following  spring  planted  it  in  corn, 
and  continued  in  that  place  until  June,  having 
taken  with  them  forty  head  of  cattle,  which 
they  left  to  feed  upon  the  luxuriant  cane.  They 
then  returned  to  Virginia  for  their  families. 
Having  packed  their  provisions,  seeds,  farming 
utensils,  etc.,  upon  horses,  they  transported 
them  across  the  mountains  to  Ganby  River,  and 
put  them  into  canoes;  but,  in  consequence  of 
the  1  own  ess  of  the  water  after   proceeding  a 


LIFE    OF    DR.    I  1.1.1, ANh.  113 

short  distance,  the)'  were  compelled   to   store 
away  their   provisions   in  a  strong  log  h 

erected  Tor  the  purpose,  and    return  for  their 
horses.     In    the    meantime    a    war   with    the 

Cherokee  Indians  broke  out,  and  a  part  of 
the  company  joined  the  expedition.  Also, 
the  war  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  having  assumed  a  serious  aspect,  it 
was  regarded  as  unsafe  to  risk  their  fami- 
lies abroad  in  such  troublous  times.  Hence 
they  considered  it  most  prudent  to  abandon 
their  removal  for  the  present.  In  the  month 
of  September  they  returned  to  their  cabin, 
in  order  to  convey  their  stores  back  to 
their  homes  in  Virginia.  But,  to  their  ut- 
ter dismay,  they  found  their  house  unroofed, 
and  their  beds,  blankets,  barrels,  etc.,  lying 
scattered  in  confusion  about  the  house.  In 
making  further  search,  they  found  that  some 
one  had  taken  a  part  of  the  bedding  to  an 
adjacent  cliff,  for  the  purpose  of  sleeping 
upon  it.  The  feelings  o£  the  company  were 
not  of  the  most  pleasant  kind,  to  find  their 
stores  of  sugar,  coffee  and  spires,  missing, 
which  they  had  been  collecting  for  some  time, 
intending  the  same  to  last  them  for  yei 
come-,  as  they  knew  it  would  be  impossible  to 
obtain  them  in' Kentucky.  At  first  they  sus- 
pected it  to  be  the  work  of  the  Indians  ;  but, 


114  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

finding  no  Indian  sign,  they  abandoned  this 
idea.  In  making  some  search,  a  part  of  the 
company  went  down  the  river,  and  in  abont 
a  half  of  a  mile  came  across  a  little,  diminutive, 
red-head  white  man,  whom  they  immediately 
charged  as  being  the  author  of  this  mischief. 
He  denied  it ;  but,  finding  some  of  their  clothes 
upon  his  person,  from  sudden  impulse  James 
McAfee  struck  at  him  with  his  tomahawk  and 
knocked  him  down,  and  then  drew  his  butcher 
knife  and  would  have  dispatched  him,  but  was 
restrained  by  his  brother  seizing  his  arm.  The 
poor  fellow  was  adjudged  as  having  forfeited 
his. life,  and  was  condemned  to  be  hung;  but, 
as  none  were  willing  to  execute  the  sentence, 
he  was  permitted  to  live. 

The  years  of  "77  and  '78  were  spent  in  re- 
pairing their  losses,  and  in  resisting  the  inva- 
sion of  the  British,  in  which  some  of  this  com- 
pany took  an  active  part. 

The  year  1779  was  an  important  one  in  the 
annals  of  Kentucky.  It  is  generally  believed 
that  this  and  the  following  year  brought  twenty 
thousand  people  to  the  district.  Preparations 
were  made  this  year  to  make  a  final  removal  to 
Salt  River — so  called  on  account  of  the  salt 
works  at  Bullit  Lick.  Accordingly,  they  left 
their  habitations  on  Catawba  and  Sinking 
Creek,  Bottetourt  Co.,  Va.,  August  17, 1779, 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELANU.  llO 

and  started  with  all- their  families  and  property 
packed  on  horses,  and  came  through  a  wilder- 
path  (crossing  at  Cumberland  Gap)  to 
Kentucky;  and,  on  the  first  day  of  October, 
arrived  at  McAfee's  station,  near  where  New 
Providence  church  now  stands. 

The  following  winter  proved  to  be  one  of 
the  utmost  severity.  It  commenced  on  the  25th 
day  of  November,  and  from  that  time  till  the 
middle  of  February  there  was  one  continual 
freeze.  All  the  water-courses  were  frozen  over. 
The  Buftaloes,  the  bears,  wolves,  beavers,  tur- 
kies,  etc.,  were  found  in  great  numbers,  frozen 
to  death.  Many  times  they  would  come  up  into 
the  yards  of  the  stations  with  the  cattle.  The 
people  of  the  different  stations  were  reduced 
to  the  utmost  extremity  for  want  of  bread. 
One  Johnny  cake  was  often  divided  into  twelve 
equal  parts  twice  each  day,  and  toward  the 
close  of  the  winter  this  failed,  and  the  people 
had  to  live  on  wild  game  entirely  for  several 
weeks.  Early  in  the  spring,  James  and  Robert 
McAfee,  with  their  sons,  went  to  the  falls  of 
the  Ohio,  and  gave  sixty  dollars  (continental 
money)  a  bushel  for  corn. 

The  spring  of  1780,  opened  with  nattering 
prospects.  Vegetation  put  forth  early,  and 
grew  with  wonderful  rapidity.  The  fruit  trees 
planted  in  '75  had  made  an  astonishing  growth, 


116  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

and  the  peacli  trees  were  loaded  with  fruit. 
But,  daring  the  summer,  the  Indians  became  . 
very  numerous,  and  committed  many  depreda- 
tions. The  settlements  were  broken  up,  and 
their  families  shut  themselves  up  in  the  fort. 
An  expedition,  under  Gen.  Clark  and  Col.  Lo- 
gan, went  out  against  the  Indians,  whose  head 
quarters  were  at  Old  Chillicothe,  on  the  Little 
Miami.  The  men  of  the  McAfee  station  joined 
them,  and  William  McAfee  commanded  a  com- 
pany from  that  and  the  adjacent  stations.  It 
marched  about  the  1st  of  July.  Canoes  were 
built  to  transport  their  men  and  provisions 
acro'ss  the  Ohio  River.  The  troops  were  ren- 
dezvoued  at  the  mouth  of  the  Licking  River. 
Previous  to  their  reaching  this  place,  one  of 
their  men  deserted,  and  gave  the  Indians  notice 
of  the  approach  of  an  army.  The  expedition 
was  almost  wholly  provided  at  the  expense  of 
the  settlers,  and  when  the  army  arrived  at  the 
place  of  rendezvous,  the  whole  stock  of  rations 
was  two  pounds  of  flour  to  each  man,  and  a 
small  quantity  of  meat.  These  were  all  the 
provisions  that  could  be  procured ;  they  must 
depend  upon  wild  game  to  complete  their  sup- 
ply. This  was  enough  to  appall  hearts  of  less 
fortitude.  They  must  march  fifty  or  sixty  miles 
and  back  again;  and  that,  too,  through  the 
enemy's   country.     When  they  reached  Chilli- 


LIFE    OB    DR.    CLBLAND.  117 

cothe,  they  found  that  the  enemy  had  decamp- 
ed, and  their  villages  were  smoking  in  rvrins. 
This  put  the  troops  in  high  spirits;  Clarke 

pushed  on  without  delay  in  a  north  western  di- 
rection to  some  Indian  towns  at  Piqua,  thirty 
miles  above  Dayton.  Here  the  Indians  made  a 
stand  ;  a  hot  engagement  ensued.  The  town 
was  taken  by  storm.  William  McAfee  led  the 
van  of  those  divisions  under  Col.  Logan-.  Dur- 
ing the  action  he  was  shot  through  the  body, 
but  lived  to  reach  the  falls  of  Ohio,  and  died 
at  Floyd  station  shortly  after  his  wile  reached 
that  place.  This  expedition  did  much  damage 
to  the  Indians.  The  whites  had  peace  the  re- 
mainder of  the  year  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Kentucky  river. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1781,  an  incident  oc- 
curred which  cast  a  gloom  upon  all  these  bright 
prospects.  Joseph,  youngest  son  of  James 
McCoun,  sen.,  went  out  to  look  after  the  cattle, 
and  was  surprised  and  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Indians,  about  one  mile  and  a  half  below  where 
New  Providence  church  now  stands.  He  was 
the  favorite  of  the  family.  John  McCoun,  his 
brother,  was  with  him  at  the  time,  and  es- 
caped. The  alarm  was  given,  and  a  company  of 
men  were  collected  as  speedily  as  possible,  and 
pursued  the  Indians  in  the  direction  of  Chilli- 
cothe,   Ohio,  but  all   to  no  purpose.     Distress 


118  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

and  sorrow  pervaded  the  whole  family,  and 
James  was  given  up  as  lost.  It  was  afterward 
ascertained  that  he  was  taken  bj  the  Shawnee 
Indians  to  a  little  town  on  the  head  waters  of 
Mad  River,  about  six  miles  above  Springfield, 
Ohio,  and  tied  to  a  stake  and  burned  with  the 
most  excruciating  tortures. 

On  the  9th  day  of  May,  the  Indians,  in  num- 
ber about  one  hundred  and  fifty,  attacked 
McAfee  station.  They  encamped  the  night  be- 
fore in  a  house  built  by  James  McCoun,  on  the 
west  side  of  Salt  River,  afterward  owned  by 
Peter  Vanarsdale. 

Just  before  day,  they  sent  out  parties  to  oc- 
cupy all  the  paths  leading  from  the  fort,  which, 
on  the  one  side,  was  guarded  only  by  a  rail 
fence,  with  only  twelve  men  in  it.  They  ex- 
pected to  make  an  easy  prey  of  the  whole. 
The  attack  did  not  take  place  until  an  hour  by 
sun  in  the  morning.  An  express  had  been  per- 
mitted to  pass  out  in  safety  to  the  Harrodsburg 
landing,  on  the  Kentucky  River.  He  was  ad- 
vised by  James  McAfee  to  take  to  the  woods, 
and  then  strike  the  path  some  distance  out. 
His  not  being  molested  induced  the  men  in  the 
station  to  believe  that  there  was  no  danger,  and 
a  part  of  them  went  out  to  clear  some  ground 
for  a  turnip  patch  south  of  the  station.  The 
females  were  engaged  in  their  ordinary  busi- 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  119 

ness.  Two  men  started  to  go  to  a  corn  crib 
above  the  station.  They  had  proceeded  about. 
three  hundred  yards,  when  they  were  fired 
upon  by  an  Indian.  This  was  a  signal  for  a 
general  attack.  One  of  the  men  fell  dead. 
The  other,  Samuel  McAfee,  turned  to  make 
his  escape,  and  was  met  by  an  Indian  in  the 
path.  Their  guns  were  within  a  few  inches  of 
each  other's  breasts  ;  the  Indian's  gun  snapped, 
McAfee's  fired,  and  the  Indian  fell  and  expired. 
James  and  Robt.  Mcx\fee  were  in  the  clearing. 
Both  seized  their  guns,  always  in  reach,  and 
ran  to  the  place  of  attack. 

Robert,  being  the  swiftest,  out-ran  his  bro- 
ther. He  met  his  brother  Samuel,  on  his  re- 
treat, who  tried  to  stop  him ;  but  he  ran  on 
until  he  came  to  the  dead  Indian  lying  in  the 
path.  He  was  intercepted.  He  took  to  the 
wood,  with  an  Indian  in  close  pursuit.  Now 
and  then  he  would  turn  upon  the  Indian,  who 
would  instantly  take  shelter  behind  a  tree. 
McAfee  ran  toward  the  river,  just  above  the 
spring  belonging  to  the  station.  He  threw 
himself  over  the  fence,  and  lay  among  some 
weeds,  waiting  till  the  enemy  would  put  his 
head  out  to  look  what  had  become  of  him. 
He  fired,  and  shot  the  Indian  in  the  jaws  and 
killed  him.  He  proved  to  be  one  of  the  Shaw- 
nee chiefs,  arrayed  in  silver  rings  and  brooches 


120  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

in  abundance.  This  checked  the  pursuit  in 
that  direction.  James  McAfee  was  arrested, 
in  the  meantime,  by  six  or  seven  Indians,  who 
were  concealed  by  some  brush  heaps.  He  took 
to  a  tree,  but  was  soon  driven  from  that  posi- 
tion by  another  party,  who  fired  at  him. 

As  soon  as  E.obt.  McAfee  reached  the  sta- 
tion, a  general  advance  by  the  Indians  was 
made  on  every  side.  The  men  of  the  fort  kept 
up  a  well  directed  fire.  Several  Indians  were 
killed  in  their  attempt  to  rush  upon  them. 
The  women  and  children  were  engaged  in  run- 
ning bullets,  and  preparing  the  necessary  means 
of  defense.  After  two  hours  the  enemy  made 
a  general  retreat,  after  destroying  nearly  all 
the  cattle  and  the  hogs  belonging  to  the  sta- 
tion. They  commenced  their  retreat  about  ten 
minutes  before  Col.  McGary  arrived,  with 
about  forty  men,  from  Harrodsburg,  William 
McAfee's  and  McGary's  station,  on  Shawnee 
River.  To  the  latter  place  the  news  was  carried 
from  William  McAfee's  station,  when  the  firing 
was  heard,  it  being  a  still,  clear  morning.  Col. 
McGary  being  joined  by  the  men  of  the  sta- 
tion, immediately  went  in  pursuit  of  the  Indi- 
ans, and  found  them  at  James  McCouu's  cabins, 
where  they  bad  encamped  the  night  before,  and 
routed  them  again,  and  pursued  them  down  on 
the  west  side   of   Salt   River,   killing   several 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  L21 

Indians  and  having  some  of  his  own  men  wound- 
ed. Thus  ended  a  second  conflict  which  threat- 
ened the  destruction  of  the  settlement  on 

River.  Thirteen  men  only  repulsed  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Indians,  which  was  regarded  by 
the  reflecting  part  of  the  garrison  as  a  Pro- 
vidential deliverance. 

Daring  the  year  1782,  very  little  occurred  to 
disturb  the  repose  of  the  settlements.  They 
dwelt  in  their  forts,  and  cultivated  their  crops 
by  stealth. 

In  the  month  of  July  another  event  occurred 
illustrating  the  singular  care  of  Providence  over 
them.  The  inhabitants  of  James  McAfee's 
station  often  joined  in  their  work,  and  aided 
each  other  in  cultivating  their  respective  farms. 
One  day  a  large  party,  male  and  female,  went 
down  to  the  farm  of  James  McCoun,  sen.,  to 
pull  flax.  A  party  of  eight  or  nine  Indians 
saw  them,  but  being  afraid  to  attack  them, 
made  a  blind  of  bushes,  behind  which  they  con- 
cealed themselves,  intending  to  way-lay  the 
company  on  their  return  to  the  station,  and 
massacre  the  whole.  Having  finished  their 
work  at  an  early  hour,  they  were  returning, 
when  one  of  their  company  proposed  to  go  up 
the  creek  to  get  some  plums,  which  grew  in 
abundance  on  its  banks,  and  thus  retui 
home  in  safety. 
12 


122  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

In  August  of  this  year,  the  battle  of  the 
Blue  Licks  was  fought,  between  the  Kentucki- 
aus  and  the  Shawnees,  which  put  the  stations 
on  the  south  side  of  Kentucky  River  into 
mourning.  The  influence  of  this  defeat  in  a 
moral  and  religious  point  of  view  was  consider- 
able. It  brought  the  inhabitants  to  a  serious 
sense  of  their  duty,  and  their  great  obligation 
to  their  Creator. 

In  the  spring  of  1783,  the  Rev.  David  Rice, 
of  patriarchal  memory,  removed  to  Kentucky, 
and  remained  during  the  winter  at  Mrs. 
McBride's,  on  Deck's  River,  and  afterward 
bought  land  and  settled  on  Harrod's  Run,  near 
Danville.  Rev.  Adam  Rankin  also  visited 
this  country  in  October.  They  occasionally 
preached  at  private  houses,  when  invited,  near 
Danville  and  Harrodsburg.  At  that  time  very 
few  thought  of,  or  cared  for  religious  matters. 

But,  in  the  following  year  the  minds  of  the 
settlers  began  to  be  seriously  inclined  to  reli- 
gious matters,  and  Mr.  Rice  was  invited  to 
preach  among  them.  Marriages,  hitherto  solem- 
nized by  magistrates,  were  now  solemnized  by 
him.  The  first  sermon  ever  preached  here  was 
by  Mr.  Rice,  on  the  banks  of  Salt  River,  near 
McCoun's  spring.  It  was  the  funeral  of  his 
wife.  It  was  a  mournful  occasion,  and  the  at- 
tention of  the  people  was  much  arrested.     Mr. 


LI1-X  OF    Dlt.    CLBLAND.  L2S 

Rice  returned  to  the  fort,  and  as  his  custom 
was,  on  the  next  day  catechized  such  as  had 
turned  their  attention  to  religious  subjects ; 
and,  on  the  next  day  (June  6th),  preached  in  a 
large  double  log  station  which  he  occasionally 
visited  to  preach  to  the  people,  [n  the  fall  a 
considerable  accession  of  strength  was  made  to 
the  neighborhood  by  the  arrival  of  Capt.  John 
and  William  Armstrong,  and  George  Buchan- 
an ;  each  having  large  families.  They  all  set- 
tled within  the  bounds  of  the  present  New  Pro- 
vidence congregation,  and  were  inclined  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  religion. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  '85,  the  neighborhood 
concluded  to  erect  a  house,  for  the  double  pur- 
pose of  school-house  and  a  meeting-house. 
Accordingly,  the  following  heads  of  families, 
James,  George,  Robert  and  Samuel  McAfee, 
the  two  James  McCoun,  John  and  William 
Armstrong,  James  and  George  Buchanan,  Jo- 
seph Lyon  and  John  McGee,  met  near  the 
ground  now  occupied  by  New  Provider.ee 
church,  and  selected  a  place  to  build  said 
house.  Two  places  were  proposed,  and  debated 
with  considerable  warmth;  the  site  of  the 
present  building,  and  the  one  near  James 
McCoun's.  'Twas  decided  by  seven  to  five  in 
favor  of  the  former  place.  After  the  corn  was 
planted,  a  log  cabin,  twenty  feet  by  eighteen, 


124  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

on  the  side  of  the  hill,  about  fifty  yards  south 
of  the  west  end  of  the  present  building,  in 
which  Mr.  Rice  preached  once  a  month  for 
several  years.  A  school  was  also  occasionally 
taught.  Such  was  still  the  unsettled  state  of 
affairs  that  the  male  inhabitants  for  three  years 
from  this  time  invariably  carried  their  guns 
with  them  when  they  went  up  to  their  house 
of  worship.  The  year  before  this  another  small 
house  of  worship  had  been  erected  on  Cane 
Run  (afterward  removed  to  Harrodsburg).  Sev- 
eral persons  named  above  were  professors  of 
religion;  and  during  the  year,  the  whole  of 
them  had  determined  to  unite  with  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  Mr.  Rice  was  very  assiduous 
in  his  religious  duties.  He  very  often  read  a 
whole  chapter  for  his  text,  in  the  way  of  a  lec- 
ture, which  often  proved  a  very  advantageous 
method  of  delivering  instruction. 

Public  attention,  during  the  following  year, 
was  somewhat  diverted,  by  the  last  campaign  of 
General  Clark,  in  which  many  of  the  Salt 
River  volunteers  enlisted.  In  1785,  Mr.  Rice 
organized  a  church  on  Salt  River,  which  was 
named  by  George  Buchanan,  New  Providence, 
in  commemoration  of  the  many  Providential 
interferences  in  their  behalf. 

George  Buchanan,  James  McColm,  sen.,  and 
William  Armstrong,  were  chosen  eiders.     The 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  1 1*.') 

church  and  congregation  gradually  increased 
until  the  year  '89. 

On  the  17th  day  of  October,  1786,  Transyl- 
vania Presbytery  was  organized  at  Danville, 
being  a  branch  of  Abington  Presbytery,  Va., 
consisting  of  the  following  persons,  viz.  :  Rev. 
David  Rice,  Adam  Rankin,  John  McClure, 
James  Crawford,  and  Thomas  B.  Craighead. 

The  controversy  in  relation  to  church 
psalmody  agitated  the  churches  in  Kentucky 
for  several  years.  Rev.  Adam  Rankin  took  the 
the  lead  in  this  matter  by  denying  the  right  of 
communion  to  all  that  used  Dr.  Watt's  version 
of  the  Psalms.  Presbytery  issued  a  process 
against  him,  including  various  charges.  lie 
took  occasion,  from  the  excited  state  of  public 
feeling,  and  renounced  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Presbytery,  and  drew  off  quite  a  number  of  fol- 
lowers with  him.  The  church  of  Xew  Provi- 
dence was  divided  in  nearly  two  equal  parts. 
Samuel  McCoun,  sen.,  and  all  hia  family,  sons 
and  sons-in-law,  including  John  McGee  and 
Robt.  McAfee,  went  with  the  seceders.  Out  of 
this  secession  was  organized  what  was  called 
the  "  Seceder  Church,"  on  the  farm  of  James 
McCoun,  sen.,  to  which  Mr.  Rankin  preached 
for  several  years.  It  has  long  since  gone  to 
decay. 

In  the  vear  '90  the    consrreofation    of  New 


126  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

Providence  built  a  large  double-hewed  log 
house,  fifty  feet  by  thirty,  joined  at  the  sides 
by  posts.  The  church  was  occasionally  sup- 
plied by  order  of  Presbytery  until  the  spring 
of  the  year  1793,  when  Kev.  John  Sutton,  a 
very  worthy  Baptist  preacher,  having  settled  in 
Harrodsburg,  was  invited  to  preach  to  them. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  suavity  of  manners,  of 
a  classical  education,  and  of  a  conservative 
spirit,  which  rendered  him  acceptable  to  all  par- 
ties, especially  as  he  made  use  of  the  old 
Psalms,  which  was  very  agreeable  to  the  "  Se- 
ceders." 

Mr.  Sutton  having  left  in  1795,  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Mahou  was  invited  to  take  charge  of  the 
!N"ew  Providence  and  Benson  churches,  which 
he  did  with  partial  success  until  the  year  1798. 

In  the  year  1800  commenced  the  great  revi- 
val, which  lasted  several  years,  including  all  de- 
nominations. The  great  meeting  at  Cane  Pidge 
took  place  on  the  7th  and  12th  days  of  August 
inclusive,  at  which  several  thousands  attended, 
among  them  quite  a  number  from  Xew  Provi- 
dence congregation. 

Pev.  Samuel  B.  Pobertson,  of  Harrison  coun- 
ty, having  several  times  preached  for  this  con- 
gregation, was  called  to  take  charge  of  it,  and 
was  ordained  as  pastor  of  Xew  Providence  and 
Cane  Pun  congregations,  Oct.  23,  1801. 


LIFE    OF    DR.    OLBLAND. 

Considerable  accessions  were  made  to  these  ' 
churches  during  the  year.     Mr.  Robertson  lived 
on  a  plantation  purchased  for  him   near  Har- 

rodsburg.  Harmony  prevailed  in  the  church, 
and  the  revival  continued  until  1805.  In  the 
meantime,  on  account  of  the  increased  size  of 
the  congregation,  Kew  Providence  church  was 
enlarged,  by  cutting  out  oue  side  of  the  house, 
and  extending  it  in  that  direction.  The  two 
congregations,  the  Presbyterians  and  Sececlers, 
occupied  the  house  on  alternate  Sabbaths  until 
the  year  1803.  Rev.  Joshua  L.  Wilson,  and 
Rev.  Mr.  Risk,  of  Rankin's  church,  happened 
to  meet  on  the  same  day.  Both  congregations 
desired  to  hear  their  own  preacher. 

It  was  proposed  by  the  elders  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  that  Mr.  Risk  miffht  take  the  fore- 
noon,  and  Mr.  Wilson  the  afternoon.  The  ses- 
sion of  the  other  church  agreed  to  consider  the 
matter.  After  Mr.  Risk  had  finished  his  ser- 
mon, he  gave  notice  that  he  would  preach  again 
in  about  a  halt'  an  hour.  The  others  shortly 
after  retired,  and  Mr.  Wilson  preached  to  them 
in  the  woods.  This  led  to  a  final  separation, 
and  the  "  Rankinites  "  went  off  and  built  a  separ- 
ate house  to  themselves,  as  has  been  before  re- 
lated, Aug.  24,  1804. 

Mr.  Robertson  was  very  much  admired  as  a 
preacher,  was   warm   and   ardent  in   his  devo- 


128  LIFE    OP    DR.    CLELAND. 

tional  exercises,  and  was  regarded  as  au  ex- 
cellent Christian.  But  many  of  his  congrega- 
tion grew  negligent  about  paying  him  his  sal- 
ary, in  consequence  of  which  he  left  them,  and 
went  to  Columbia,  Adair  county.  This  took 
place  about  the  year  1812. 

The  congregation,  being  again  declared  va- 
cant, now  began  seriously  to  feel  the  want  of  a 
preached  Gospel.  They  soon  had  their  eyes 
upon  Rev.  Thomas  Cleland,  pastor  of  Spring- 
field and  Hardin's  Creek  congregation.  As  he 
had  married  in  the  congregation  to  the  daugh- 
ter of  Capt.  John  Armstrong,  it  was  believed 
that  he  might  be  induced  to  remove  among 
them,  and  accept  a  call.  According^,  the 
eldership  of  the  two  congregations  of  Xew 
Providence  and  Cane  Run  invited  him  to 
take  charge  of  these  congregations  as  their 
pastor,  which  he  did.  He  commenced  his  min- 
isterial services  on  the  1st  Sabbath  of  April, 
1813,  which  continued  with  uninterrupted  har- 
mony for  nearly  one  half  of  a  century. 


LIFE    OP    DR.    CLELAND.  l'2(J 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Literary  Labors — Doctor  of  Divinity — Visit  to  Frankfort  in 
behalf  of  Center  College — Anecdote — His  services  as  a  Mem- 
ber of  an  Ecclesiastical  Court — His  watchfulness  for  provi- 
dences—  Last  entry  in  his  Journal. 

[His  literary  labors  commenced  soon  after  his 
removal  to  New  Providence.] 

About  the  year  1815,  without  any  seeking  of 
my  own,  commenced  my  literary  controversy 
with  BartOD  W.  Stone.  The  maimer  in  which 
I  was  drawn  into  it,  is  explained  in  my  intro- 
ductory chapter  to  "  Unitarianism  Unmasked," 
which  was  the  third  and  last  book  I  published 
against  his  Arian  and  Socinian  heresies.  This 
controversy  proved  of  great  service  to  myself. 
I  could  thank  God  that  I  was  not  permitted  to 
wander  off  into  the  mazes  of  error,  like  my 
opponent.  "  Who  maketh  me  to  differ  from 
another,"  I  often  said  to  myself.  By  nature 
and  acquirements  I  was  no  better,  perhaps  not 
as  good  as  this  man.  But  in  the  next  place  I 
learned  more  divinity  in  this  investigation,  than 
in  all  my  ecclesiastical  life  before.  My  views 
of  divine  truth  were  greatly  enlarged,  more  con- 
firmed and  established,  and  I  may  add,  more 
precious  to  my  heart,  and  was  better  enabled  to 
13 


130  LIFE   OF.  DR.    CLELAND. 

instruct  others,  to  teach  them  the  good  and  the 
right  way,  and  to  establish  them  in  the  truth. 
All  three  of  my  productions  were  favorably 
received,  and  widely  scattered  all  over  Ken- 
tucky; and  it  was  thought  by  my  friends,  that 
they  were  instrumental  in  putting  a  stop  to  the 
progress  of  that  heresy- — of  saving  many  people 
from  falling  into  it — strengthening  and  con- 
firming others  who  were  shaken  by  it;  of  re- 
claiming some,  even  among  Mr.  Stone's  clerical 
brethren,  who  had  embraced  it.  Upon  the 
whole,  with  all  its  imperfections,  I  have  reason 
to  bless  God  for  his  assistance  and  approbation 
in  this  controversy. 

Though  I  never  calculated  on  becoming  a 
writer,  yet  almost  unexpectedly  and  undesign- 
edly I  was  called  to  take  up  my  pen  on  various 
occasions.  And  it  appears  strange  to  myself, 
and  almost  unaccountable,  on  a  review  of  my 
busy  and  hurried  life,  how  I  was  able  to  accom- 
plish as  much  of  this  work  as  I  did.  I  had  lit- 
tle time  to  write.  E~or  am  I  a  ready  writer.  I 
wrote  slowly  and  carefully.  All  my  produc- 
tions went  to  the  press  without  transcribing;  I 
had  no  time  for  such  employment.  My  general 
practice  was  to  read  late  at  night,  after  all  the 
family  had  retired  to  rest,  make  my  notes  and 
references,  and  then  rise  about  two  hours  before 
day  and  write  till  breakfast;  after  which  I  was 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  131 

off  preaching,  working,  etc.,  until  night  came 

on  again.  I  thought  I  found  my  mind  more 
active  and  clear  in  the  morning,  before  day,  and 
after  moderate  manual  labor.  It  was  my  plan 
to  redeem  the  time,  every  hour  I  could  spare ; 
and  I  have  no  doubt  now,  but  an  active  life, 
in  one  form  or  another,  was  the  strength  and 
support  of  my  physical  constitution. 

I  here  insert  a  list  of  my  principal  publica- 
tions, which  may  be  found  in  various  bound 
volumes,  and  the  years  in  which  they  were 
published. 

1.  A  Familiar  Dialogue  between  Calvinus  and  Arminius..  1805 

2.  The  Heavenly  Society.  Rev.  vii :  9.     Funeral  of  Mrs. 

Jane  Horton, 1808 

3.  The  Socini-Arian  Detected.     Series  of  letters  to  Bar- 

ton W.  Stone, 1815 

4.  Letters    to    B.  W.   Stone   on    Trinity,  Divinity,  and 

Atonement  of  Christ, 1822 

5.  Reply  to  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  David, 1822 

0.  Brief  History,  etc.,  of  Cumberland  Presbyterians;  by 

order  of  Synod, 1822 

7.  The  Destructive  Influence  of  Sinners.  Ecc.  ix:  18, 1823 

8.  Evangelical  Hymns.  (Selected.) 1825 

'.'.  Preservation   and  Perseverance  of  the   Saints.    Isa. 

xxvii:  3, 1827 

10.  A  Wheel  within  a  Wheel,   (Sermon.)    Fzek.  i:  16,...  1820 

11.  Various  Articles  for  Calviuistic  Magazine, 1829 

12.  Familiar  Dialogue  between  Calvinus  and  Arminius, 

on  the  doctrines  of  Election  and  Predestination,...  1830 

13.  Various  articles  for  Presbyterian  Advocate, 1830 

14.  Difficulties  of  Arminianism, 1831 

16.  Strictures  on  Crimphfllism, 1888 


132  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

16.  Outward  Rites  and  Inward  Graces,  not.  Identical  and 

Inseparable.  Rom.  ii:  28-9, 1833 

17.  Funeral  Sermon  of  Mrs.  Judge  Underwood, 1835 

18.  Funeral  Sermon  of  Mrs.  Hickman, 1836 

19.  The  Conservation    and    Preservation  of  the    Saints. 

Ps.  xxxvii:  28, 1836 

20.  Trial  and  Acquittal  of  John  the  Baptist, 1853 

In  addition  to  these  an  unpublished  manu- 
script, 

"  Candid  Reasons  for  not  being  an  Anti-Pedo  Baptist." 

[He  gives  a  humorous  account  of  his  Doc- 
torate.] 

I  presume  it  was  owing  to  ray  literary  pro- 
ductions, that  the  attention  of  Transylvania 
University  was  attracted,  when,  on  the  10th  of 
July,  1822,  I  received  from  that  institution  the 
honorary  degree  of  "  D.  D."  This  was  as  unex- 
pected as  it  was  undeserved  or  unmerited.  I 
immediately  sat  down  and  wrote,  as  politely  as 
possible,  my  declination  of  this  high-sounding 
title,  and  was  about  to  send  it  off  next  day ;  but 
the  Legislature  was  then  sitting  at  Frankfort, 
and  having  before  them  a  charter  for  a  Presby- 
terian (Center)  College,  at  Danville,  and  there 
being  a  most  violent  opposition  from  sectarians 
in  that  body,  as  also  from  Lexington,  where 
the  interests  of  the  University  were  at  stake, 
and  against  which  Institution  the  Presbyteri- 
ans were  now  leveling  their  batteries,  on  account 
of  its  bad  management — it  was  by  the  advice  of 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  133 

a  particular  friend  at  Frankfort,  who,  being 
apprized  of  my  intention,  deemed  it  expedient 
and  advisable,  that  I  should  retain  this  hono- 
rary title,  lest  it  might  be  construed  unfavorably 

to  the  cause  of  the  charter  of  Center  College. 
It  was  owing  to  this  advice  that  I  did  not  send 
off  my  resignation,  and  many  times  wish  that 
I  had  paid  no  attention  to  it,  and  so  got  rid  of 
one  of  the  most  unwelcome  honors,  or  burdens, 
that  was  ever  put  upon  me  in  all  my  public 
career.  It  was  owing,  as  I  afterward  learned, 
to  the  officious  kindness  of  Dr.  Blythe  and  jST. 
H.  Hall,  who  recommended  me  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees.  The  former  was  the  only  D.  D.  in 
Kentucky,  and  I  suppose  wanted  company,  and 
the  latter  probably  looked  forward  when  he 
might  obtain  it  himself. 

[The  visit  to  Frankfort,  of  which  he  speaks, 
is  connected  with  an  anecdote  illustrative  of  his 
ready  humor.  "When  application  was  made  to 
the  Legislature  for  the  charter  of  Center  Col- 
lege, it  met  with  violent  opposition  from  the 
adherents  of  Transylvania  University,  and  some 
other  rival  institutions.  The  late  Samuel  K. 
Nelson  went  to  Frankfort  to  use  his  personal 
influence  in  behalf  of  the  application  for  a  char- 
ter. The  prospects  were  so  doubtful  that  Mr., 
or  rather  now  the  newly  made  Dr.  Cleland,  was 
sent  for  to  employ  his  personal  influence  among 


134  LIFE    OP   DR.    CLELAND. 

the  members  of  the  Legislature.  On  his  way 
to  Frankfort  he  met  Mr.  Nelson,  both  travel- 
ing on  horseback.  Mr.  Nelson  told  him  how 
the  matter  stood,  and  of  the  bugbear  of  secta- 
rianism which  was  used  to  defeat  the  measure. 
Dr.  Cleland  related  an  anecdote  which  was  so 
appropriate  and  amusing,  that  Mr.  Nelson  was 
convulsed  with  laughter,  and  said  to  Dr.  Cle- 
land, "  Go  to  Frankfort,  and  tell  that  story,  and 
you  will  get  the  charter."  The  use  he.  made  of 
it  appears  in  the  following  paragraph,  taken 
from  Davidson's  History  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Kentucky : 

["  The  prominent  opponent  was  a  Baptist 
whose  family  connection  was  deeply  and  per- 
manently interested  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
University.  He  made  his  appearance  in  the 
Legislature  with  his  arms  filled  with  books, 
and  a  servant  behind  him  with  a  wheelbarrow 
also  loaded  with  them.  He  spoke  several 
hours,  and  made  a  violent  philippic,  to  show 
that  the  Presbyterians  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  had  always  burned  with  the  lust  of 
domination,  and  the  desire  of  uniting  Church 
and  State.  "When  he  had  ended,  a  member 
(Col.  James  Davidson,  now  State  Treasurer),  a 
man  of  much  dry  humor,  and  a  deep  sonorous 
voice,  gravely  told  a  simple  anecdote,  by  way 
of  illustrating  the  terrors  which  had  been  so 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND, 

awfully  presented.  Au  Irish  liedemptioner 
lost  himself  in  the  woods  one  evening;  he  had 
heard  a  great  deal  of  the  Indians,  and  the  novel 
sights  and  sounds  around  him  inspired  him 
with  such  alarm  that  he  climbed  up  into  a  tree 
for  safety,  and  there  spent  the  sleepless  night. 
On  being  found  next  day,  he  told  through  what 
perils  he  had  passed.  The  fireflies  he  mistook 
for  the  torches  of  the  savages  in  quest  of  him ; 
while  his  agitated  fancy  interpreted  the  doleful 
screams  of  the  whippoorwills  into  menaces  of 
destruction,  crying  '  whip-him-well !  whip-him- 
well !  cut-and-slash  !  cut-and-slash  !  and  the  fire 
new  all  the  time,'  said  he,  '  like  the  de'il.'  In 
short,  '  he  did  not  know  what  would  become  of 
him,  had  it  not  been  for  the  swate,  heavenly 
bauds' — meaning  the  bullfrogs — 'who  kept  call- 
ing out  Motheration  !  Motheration  !'  'Xow,' 
said  Col.  Davidson,  '  when  I  heard  the  honora- 
ble member  conjuring  up  all  those  dreadful 
hobgoblins,  they  appeared  to  me  of  the  same 
imaginary  character  of  the  poor  Irishman's  ter- 
rors, and  I  felt  an  irresistible  impulse  to  rise 
up  in  my  place  and  call  out  "  Motheration ! 
Motheration  !  "  '  The  ludicrous  anecdote,  nar- 
rated in  the  dryest  manner,  and  with  his  gravest 
intonations,  convulsed  the  house  with  laughter. 
In  the  meantime  Mr.  Xelson  had  returned,  and 
was  reclining  on  a  bench   in  the  Legislative 


136  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

hall ;  he  was  so  overcome  by  convulsive  laugh- 
ter, that  he  fell  from  his  seat  upon  the  floor, 
and  was  struck  with  a  pain  in  his  side,  which 
he  carried  with  him  to  the  grave.  The  serious 
and  inflammatory  speech  on  the  other  side  was 
effectually  neutralized,  and  the  friends  of  the 
bill  adroitly  seizing  the  propitious  opportunity, 
hurried  it  through  its  final  passage,  before  the 
effect  could  be  counteracted.  The  circumstance, 
trivial  as  it  may  seem,  is  here  inserted,  not  only 
as  a  historical  verity,  but  for  the  purpose 
also  of  showing  upon  what  slender  threads 
sometimes  hang  the  destinies  of  the  greatest 
events." 

[Of  the  fidelity  with  which  he  discharged  his 
duty  as  an  office-bearer  in  the  Church,  some 
idea  may  be  formed  from  what  follows.] 

Amid  the  multiplied  calls  and  demands  upon 
my  time,  both  ministerial  and  domestic,  in  the 
kind  providence  of  God  I  have  never  been  pre- 
vented from  attending  every  stated  meeting  of 
Presbytery  and  Synod,  but  once,  by  indisposi- 
tion, and  once  from  absence  on  a  journey  to 
Indiana  and  Illinois,  in  the  fall  of  1831.  As  a 
commissioner  to  the  General  Assembly  I  was  a 
member  of  that  body,  at  Philadelphia,  in  the 
years  1809,  1820,  1824,  1829,  at  Pittsburg  in 
1835,  at  Philadelphia  in  1837.  In  those  Assem- 
blies I  never  made  a  figure ;  was  rather  a  silent 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  137 

member,  unless  attending  to  the  special  bu.si- 

od   which  I  was   particularly  appointed. 

Having  uo  particular  tact  or  inclination  for  the 

lloor,  I  therefore  preferred  a  less  conspicuous 
station.  In  the  year  1820  I  was  zealously  and 
industriously  employed  with  the  whole  body  in 
reviewing  and  remodeling  "The  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment, and  Discipline  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A."  This  important  work 
we  were  engaged  in  four  days,  and  being  com- 
pleted sent  down  to  the  Presbyteries  for  their 
approval,  and  was  adopted  by  a  large  majority, 
and  ratified  by  the  General  Assembly  the  next 
year,  1831. 

[At  the  disruption  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
he  adhered  to  the  New  School  General  Assem- 
bly, and  was  a  member  of  that  body  in  18*0- 
,52-,54,  making  ten  Assemblies  in  which  he  sat 
as  commissioner. 

[His  share  in  the  settlement  of  the  difficulties 
which  occurred  in  the  Cumberland  Presbytery 
is  thus  set  forth.] 

In  the  year  1805  I  was  a  member  of  the 
Commission  of  Synod,  appointed  to  meet  down 
in  the  Green  river  country,  to  arrest  the  pro- 
gress of  the  irregularities  produced  by  the  Cum- 
berland Presbytery,  a  lull  account  of  which 
has  been  spread  before  the  public,  hi  the  win- 
ter of  1807,  as  one  of  the  committee  to  meet  at 


138  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

Russellville,  to  investigate  a  charge  of  common 
fame,  against  Rev.  James  McGready,  I  rode 
the  day  previous  to  our  meeting,  thirty-five 
miles  in  the  barrens,  facing  the  wind,  on  what 
is  called  to  this  day,  "  the  cold  Friday"  in  the 
month  of  February.  JSTever  shall  I  forget  this 
day.  Toward  night  I  felt,  as  I  suppose,  almost 
the  chill  of  death  approaching  me.  But  it  was 
in  the  service  of  the  Church — one  of  the  trials 
of  this  early  day — and  cheerfully  borne  for  the 
Master's  sake. 

During  the  whole  time  of  my  ministry  in 
"Washington  county,  I  attended  every  meeting 
of  Presbytery  and  Synod,  no  matter  what  diffi- 
culties or  inconveniences  seemed  to  appear  in 
the  way.  By  a  kind  providence  all  failure,  or 
disappointment  was  out  of  the  question. 

In  the  spring  of  1809,  I  went  the  first  time 
as  commissioner  to  the  General  Assembly  at 
Philadelphia.  There  being  no  stages  or  steam- 
boats, the  whole  journey  was  performed  on 
horseback ;  and  a  tedious  one  it  was,  indeed — 
between  six  hundred  and  seven  hundred  miles. 
The  principal  call  for  this  was  the  unfinished 
business  relating  to  the  Cumberland  Presbyte- 
rians. The  other  commissioners  for  the  Synod 
of  Kentucky,  were  Rev.  Messrs.  Lyle  and 
Stewart.  The  business  came  up — a  full  state- 
ment and  representation  was  made— the  whole 


LIFE   OP   DR.    GLELAND.  LB9 

affair  investigated,  and  a  final  decision  rendered 
in  favor  of  the  Synod.     The  Oumberlands,  as 

generally  called,  the  next  year  made  a  separate 
organization,  and  have  so  continued  until  the 
present  day.  A  brief  history  was  drawn  up 
by  myself,  in  a  small  pamphlet  of  some  thirty 
pages  octavo,  as  the  committee  of  Synod,  pur- 
suant to  their  appointment,  in  1821.  The  draft 
was  unanimously  adopted  by  Synod  in  1822, 
and  published  for  distribution  among  the  Fres-: 
byteries,  early  in  the  following  year. 

[Very  many  incidents  in  his  private  life, 
related  in  the  manuscript  are  omitted  in  this 
publication.  One  of  his  eminent  virtues  ought, 
however,  not  to  be  omitted — his  remarkable 
watchfulness  for  the  indications  of  God's  provi- 
dential hand.  Whole  pages  are  occupied  by 
occurrences  in  the  course  of  his  life  —  such  as 
escape  from  accidental  death  by  the  falling  of 
timber,  the  attacks  of  wild  beasts,  etc.,  in  which 
he  delighted  to  find  the  traces  of  a  divine  inter- 
position in  his  behalf.  Two  of  these  incidents 
may  be  repeated  here.] 

A  serious  accident  happened  to  me  on  my 
way  to  the  General  Assembly,  in  1824.  This 
journey,  very  tedious  and  irksome,  was  still 
performed  on  horseback,  for  the  want  of  other 
conveyance  more  eligible.  My  companions 
were  Dr.  Wm.  Pawling,  lay  delegate  with  me 


140  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

to  the  Assembly,  and  a  young  man,  by  the 
name  of  Worthington,  on  his  way  to  West 
Point.  It  was  a  gentle  rainy  day,  the  27th  of 
April,  and  within  eleven  miles  of  Chillicothe, 
Ohio.  We  were  passing  a  rough  bridge,  with- 
out railing,  which  lay  over  Paint  creek,  extend- 
ing to  a  small  bluff  beyond.  We  entered  simul- 
taneously with  a  wagon  on  the  opposite  side, 
which  we  supposed  would  stop  for  us.  The  Dr. 
was  before,  and  passed  by  the  approaching 
wagon  in  safety.  I  was  next,  and  arriving 
about  half  way  between  the  bluff  and  the 
water's  edge,  my  horse  took  fright,  and  back- 
ing obliquely,  his  hinder  parts  slipped  off  the 
bridge,  throwing  me  backward,  right  upon  my 
back,  and  he  came  after  me,  and  in  a  most 
remarkable  manner  was  right  over  me,  with  his 
hind  feet  a  little  obliquely  on  one  side  of  me, 
and  his  fore  feet  one  on  each  side  of  me,  bear- 
ing himself  off  me  as  well  as  he  could,  while 
both  my  hands  were  pushing  upward  against 
his  breast.  The  animal  was  somehow  in  a 
twist,  and  exerting  himself  with  all  his  might 
to  spring  off  of  me,  which,  after  two  or  three 
efforts  he  did  without  inflicting  the  slightest 
injury.  The  prints  of  his  feet  appeared  in  the 
sand  all  around  me,  yet  not  a  hoof  touched  me. 
The  Dr.  had  sprung  from  his  horse,  and  ran 
back  with  great  agitation.     He  thought  the 


LIFE    OF    L>R.    CLELAND.  141 

horse  had  fallen  upon  me;  that  I  had  sprung 
up  for  the  moment,  and  expected  me  instantly 

to  fall  and  expire.  I  was  upon  my  feet,  crying 
"whoa,  whoa"  to  the  horses,  which  had  got 
together  and  were  affrighted.  He  looked  me 
right  in  the  lace,  with  grief  and  agitation,  and 
asked  if  I  could  speak.  I  told  him  "  Yes." 
"Let  me  see  you  breathe,"  said  he;  which  hav- 
ing done  to  his  great  joy  and  satisfaction,  he 
replied,  "You  are  safe."  Had  I  fallen  one-half 
minute  earlier,  myself  and  horse  must  have 
been  killed,  or  dreadfully  crushed  and  mangled, 
as  there  lay  two  trees  obliquely  across  each 
other,  like  a  pair  of  shears  half  opened.  Put 
the  place  allotted  for  us  hy  the  hand  of  Provi- 
dence was  a  smooth,  soft,  sandy  spot,  without 
a  stick  or  a  pebhle.  The  distance  from  the  top 
of  the  bridge  was  eight  or  ten  feet.  AYe  reached 
Chillicothe  that  night,  not  having  been  detained 
by  the  accident  more  than  half  an  hour.  The 
next  morning  I  found  that  my  right  knee  had 
been  a  little  .-trained  by  the  fall.  The  record 
in  my  journal  says:  "  This  day  (April  27)  I  have 
been  exposed  to  the  greatest  hazard,  and  most 
imminent  danger  of  my  life,  by  the  fall  of  my- 
self and  horse  from  a  bridge,  etc.  I  desire  ever 
to  remember  this  event  as  the  kindest  act  of 
Providence  in  my  favor..  I  pray  that  I  may 
religiously  recollect  it,  while  I  live." 


142  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

The  other  fact  indicative  of  the  providential 
kindness  of  God  to  him,  was  the  very  unex- 
pected, and  to  him  considerable  legacy  left  him 
by  one  known  as  an  enemy  to  religion  in  gen- 
eral, and  Presbyterianism  in  particular.  Con- 
sidering the  unexpected  source  from  whence  it 
came,  he  says :  "  Had  this  assistance  been 
handed  down  from  above,  by  some  visible  hand, 
I  could  not  have  been  more  assured  that  it  was 
directly  the  gift  of  God.  I  had  rendered  gra- 
tuitous aid  to  his  young  servants  under  my  care, 
who  were  unable  to  help  themselves,  and  here 
was  the  <  giving  back '  of  the  Lord,  good  meas- 
ure, pressed  down,  shaken  together,  and  run- 
ning over." 

[His  last  entry  in  his  journal  was  made  Jan- 
uary 31,  1855,  and  is  in  these  words :] 

One  circumstance  more  deserves  special  no- 
tice. I  have  been  compelled  to  give  up  public 
duties,  and  all  pastoral  relationship  to  the 
Church.  In  connection  with  feeble  strength,  a 
nervous  affection  at  the  bottom  of  my  stomach, 
after  a  short  time  speaking,  prevents  me  from 
proceeding,  weakening  my  articulation,  and 
compelling  me  to  cease  altogether.  Were  it 
not  for  this,  I  could  hold  forth  at  least  an  hour, 
without  much  difficulty.  But  it  is  my  masters 
will  that  I  should  retire  from  the  field  and  take 
my  rest,  after  public  service  for  more  than  half 


LIFE    OP    DR.    CLELAND*  143 

a  century.  My  successor,  for  the  present,  is 
Rev.  Wm.  T.  McElroy,  from  Union  Theolo- 
gical Seminary,  N.  Y.,  but  a  native  of  this 
State,  and  recently  ordained  by  this  Presbyter}- . 
He  is  a  promising  young  man,  and  I  hope  will 
be  made  a  blessing  to  these  people.  "With  re- 
gard to  myself,  my  prayer  is — 

"  Oh  !  let  me,  gracious  Lord,  extend 
My  view  to  life's  approaching  end. 
What  are  my  days  ?  A  span  their  line  ; 
And  what  my  age,  compared  with  thine? 

"  God  of  my  fathers,  here,  as  they, 
I  walk,  the  pilgrim  of  a  day; 
A  transient  guest,  thy  works  admire, 
And  instant  to  my  home  retire. 

"  Oh,  spare  me,  Lord,  in  mercy  spare, 
And  nature's  failing  strength  repair, 
Ere  life's  short  circuit  wandered  o'er 
I  perish,  and  am  seen  no  more." 


144  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Close  of  his  Ministry — Last  Administration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper — Illness — Conversations — His  death  a?  described  by 
his  Son,  Rev.  P.  S.  Cleland — His  Funeral — His  Character  as 
a  Man  and  a  Preacher. 

His  death  occurred  three  years  to  a  day  after 
he  penned  these  words.  During  that  time  the 
infirmities  of  advancing  age  gathered  rapidly 
upon  him.  But  he  was  always  cheerful,  and  at 
times  animated  in  conversation.  His  vigor  of 
mind,  his  genial  humor,  his  reverence  for  the 
Scriptures,  his  piety  toward  God,  and  his  char- 
ity toward  man.  seem  never  to  have  abated. 
But  for  the  decay  of  his  physical  powers,  he 
might  have  continued  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try until  the  day  of  his  death.  The  last  time 
he  attempted  any  public  service  was  a  sacra- 
mental meeting  held  in  the  Xew  Providence 
church,  in  the  October  preceeding  his  death. 
One  who  was  present  on  that  occasion,  thus  de- 
scribes his  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 
"  So  feeble  was  he  in  body,  that  one  of  his 
sons  was  obliged  to  lift  him  to  his  feet ;  but  so 
bright  and  clear  was  his  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual vision,  that  his  remarks  were  particularly 
appropriate  and  solemn,  and  so  touching  as  to 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  145 

melt  the  whole  house  into  tears."  "  My  little 
children,  it  is  the  last  time,"  said  he  ;  his  trem- 
bling limbs,  his  sunken  cheek,  his  pallid  coun- 
tenance, his  feeble  voice  and  shrunken  form, 
all  said  "it  is  the  last  time."  "Having  loved 
his  own,  he  loved  them  to  the  end."  It  was 
truly  an  affecting  sight  to  see  him  take  a  final 
leave  of  the  people  of  his  charge.  He  had  gone 
in  and  out  before  them  for  nearly  fifty  years. 
It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  he  loved 
them  more,  or  was  more  beloved  by  them. 
His  love  to  them  was  that  of  a  father;  theirs 
to  him  was  that  of  children — spiritual  children. 
He  had  helped  them  to  bury  their  fathers  and 
mothers ;  he  had  united  them  together  in 
the  holy  bands  of  wedlock.  He  had  mingled 
his  sympathies  and  tears  with  theirs  in  afflic- 
tion ;  had  counseled  them  in  their  difficulties. 
They  looked  up  to  him  for  advice  and  counsel. 
They  revered  him  alike  for  his  wisdom, 
his  prudence,  and  his  piety.  For  many 
long  years  they  had  waited  upon  his  ministry 
with  great  profit  and  delight.  In  his  public 
ministrations  he  was  "  unto  them  as  a  very 
lovely  song,  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice, 
and  can  play  well  on  an  instrument."  Their 
hearts  had  often  glowed  with  love,  and  melted 
into  tenderness  under  the  sweet  and  touching 
tones  of  that  pathetic  voice.  He  reminded 
14 


146  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

them  that  he  must  soon  leave  them.  That 
hoary  head  must  soon  be  low  in  the  grave  ;  that 
heaving  breast  be  pressed  into  the  same  narrow 
confinements  by  the  clods  of  the  valley ;  that 
tremulous  voice  would  soon  be  hushed ;  those 
eyes,  which  had  long  darted  the  sentiments  of 
kindness  and  affection,  would  be  glazed;  and 
those  once  active  limbs  would  soon  become 
rigid  in  death.  As  he  gave  to  his  dearly  be- 
loved spiritual  children,  for  the  last  time,  the 
symbols  of  the  broken  body  and  shed  blood  of 
a  crucified  Saviour,  he  looked  through  the  open 
window,  and  pointed  to  the  spot  reserved  for 
his  remains,  and  then  to  heaven — the  home  of 
his  spirit,  and  commended  them  to  the  grace  of 
God,  and  sat  down  overpowered  by  the  strength 
of  his  emotions.  "And  they  all  wept  sore,  sor- 
rowing most  of  all  for  the  words  which  he 
spake,  that  they  should  see  his  face  no  more." 
He  never  returned  to  the  house  of  God 
again,  but  lingered  in  his  chamber  until  the 
evening  of  the  Lord's  day,  Jan.  31,  18.58,  when 
he  gently  fell  asleep.  His  thoughts,  toward 
the  close  of  life,  turned  exclusively  on  heaven- 
ly things.  Two  of  his  friends  from  a  distance, 
one  of  them  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  visited 
him  on  Thursday  before  his  death.  When  they 
entered  the  room,  his  children  told  them  that 
the   patient   had  fallen  into   a  lethargic  state 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  L47 

recently,  and  that,  probably,  ho  would  have  but 
little  to  say. 

But,  when  he  recognized  his  visitors,  he 
instantly  entered  into  a  conversation  with 
them,  and  spent  two  or  three  hours  in  describ- 
ing to  them  his  faith  in  Christ,  and  his  hopes 
for  the  world  to  come.  His  thoughts  seemed 
to  connect  themselves  with  particular  passages 
of  Scripture,  many  of  which  he  repeated  and 
expounded  in  their  deepest  spiritual  significa- 
tion. He  said,  "  It  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  satisfy 
our  friends  and  the  church  with  our  ministry  ; 
but  my  labors  do  not  satisf}^  me.  I  shall  be  satis- 
lied  only  when  I  awake  in  the  likeness  of 
Christ.  I  have  no  raptures.  I  am  but  a 
poor  sinner;  but  I  do  trust  in  Christ,  and 
through  him  I  see  my  way  as  clearly  to  his 
kingdom  on  high,  as  I  do  the  road  from  here 
to  Ilarrodsburg,  over  which  I've  traveled 
more  than  a  thousand  times." 

[His  son,  the  Rev.  P.  S.  Cleland,  thus  de- 
scribes his  last  hours.] 

"The  last  words  of  departed  friends  are  pre- 
served among  our  most  cherished  recollections. 
We  are  eager  to  catch  the  faintest  whispers 
that  issue  from  their  dying  lips,  as  if  it  were  a 
message  from  the  invisible  world.  Especially 
do  we  desire  to  know  what  are  their  hopes  and 
feelings   in    view   of  the   eternal   state,   upon 


148  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

which  they  are  about  to  enter.  However  de- 
cided may  have  been  their  Christian  character, 
and  their  fidelity  in  the  service  of  Christ  during 
their  lives,  we  still  desire  their  dying  testimony 
to  the  power  and  grace  of  God,  and  confirma- 
tion of  their  hopes  of  blessedness  beyond  the 
grave.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  impression  is 
too  common  that  religion  is  designed,  chiefly,  to 
cheer  us  in  death,  and  make  us  happy  in  eternity. 
And  such,  indeed,  is  its  influence  in  many  in- 
stances. It  is  frequently  the  case  that  the 
servants  of  God  are  enabled  to  give  the 
most  delightful  and  triumphant  testimony 
to  the  power  of  Christian  faith  and  hope  to 
sustain  them  as  they  go  through  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death.  Their  sun  goes  down  in 
unclouded  brightness.  The  death-bed  scenes 
of  such  men  as  Payson,  Evarts,  and  Finley,  not 
only  minister  rich  consolation  to  surviving 
friends,  but  leave  an  invaluable  spiritual  legacy 
to  the  Church  and  the  world. 

But  religion  is  designed  to  affect  our  charac- 
ter and  conduct ;  and  the  evidences  of  a  genu- 
ine piety  are  to  be  sought,  not  so  much  in 
death  as  in  life.  And  many  of  God's  children 
pass  away  to  their  home  in  heaven  without 
having  those  animating  views  of  heaven,  or  that 
unwavering  faith  and  cheerful  hope  with  which 
other  saints  are  favored  in  the  hour  of  their 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  149 

departure.  Their  sun,  though  it  may  have 
shone  long  and  brilliantly,  sinks  to  his  rest  be- 
hind the  western  cloud.  A\re  know,  however, 
that  he  still  shines  in  all  his  glory ;  and,  though 
his  beams  fall  not  upon  us,  they  illumine 
other  eyes,  and  impart  a  splendor  even  to  the 
clouds  that  obscure  his  face.  "We  need  not 
their  dying  words  to  assure  us  that  they  are 
gone  to  be  with  Christ.  It  is  related  of  Whit- 
field, that  in  his  last  visit  but  one  which  he 
paid  to  America,  he  spent  a  day  or  two  at 
Princeton,  under  the  roof  of  Dr.  Finley,  then 
President  of  the  College  at  that  place.  At 
dinner  Dr.  F.  said,  "Mr.  W.,  I  hope  it  will  be 
very  long  before  you  will  be  called  home;  but 
when  that  event  shall  arrive,  I  shall  be  glad  to 
hear  the  noble  testimony  you  will  bear  for 
God."  "You  will  be  disappointed,  Doctor," 
said  W., "  I  shall  die  silent.  It  has  pleased 
God  to  enable  me  to  bear  so  many  testimonies 
for  him  during  my  life,  that  he  will  require 
none  from  me  when  I  die."  The  manner  of 
his  death  verified  this  prediction. 

In  regard  to  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  it 
may  be  said  with  almost  equal  truth,  that  he 
died  silent.  His  testimony  for  God  is  to  be 
found,  mainly,  in  an  active  and  successful  min- 
istry of  more  than  half  a  century.  He  came 
to  his  grave  in  advanced  age,  not  so  much  by 


150  LIFE   OF   DR,   CLELAND. 

the  power  of  disease,  as  in  .consequence  of  .the 
weariug  out  of  the  machinery  of  life.  This 
was  indicated  by  the  singular  fact,  that  on  the 
day  of  his  death  he  discharged  from  his  stom- 
ach grapes  which  he  had  eaten  nearly  three 
months  previously ;  which  showed  that  that 
organ  had  long  since  ceased  the  active  discharge 
of  its  functions.  His  strength  gradually,  though 
steadily,  failed  for  many  weeks.  Consequently, 
he  became  very  languid  and  feeble ;  he  was 
able  and  inclined  to  talk  but  little.  As  he  was 
naturally  social  in  his  temperament  and  fluent 
in  conversation,  it  was  a  matter  of  surprise, 
with  some  of  his  friends,  that  he  had  so  little  to 
say  in  his  last  days  on  the  great  themes  of  eter- 
nity and  salvation.  But,  when  spoken  to  of 
his  hopes  and  prospects  of  heaven,  he  conversed 
freely  and  satisfactorily.  "When  asked  by  one 
of  his  children  how  he  felt  as  he  drew  near  his 
last  end,  he  replied,  "that  he  had  no  fear  of  the 
sting  of  death;  yet,  that  he  felt  a  shrinking 
from  death,  when  he  thought  of  being  ushered 
into  the  presence  of  God,  who  is  so  infinitely 
pure  and  holy,  and  he  so  sinful  and  impure." 
He  said,  "  I  have  two  prayers  on  my  dying 
lips,"  one  is,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner." 
The  other,  "Lord,  receive  my  spirit."  He  said, 
also,  "that  he  had  not  a  doubt  of  his  accept- 
ance, and  that  he  could  see  his  way  to  heaven 


LIFE   OF    DR.    CLELAND.  151 

as  dear  and  as  plain  as  he  could  see  his  way 
to  Harrodsburg." 

lie  felt  that  he  had  heen  a  very  unprofitable 
servant.  A  few  hours  before  his  departure, 
when  he  had  ceased  to  converse  with  those 
about  him,  and  as  if  talking  with  God,  he  was 
heard  to  say,  "  unprofitable  servant,  unprofit- 
able servant !  "  His  reliance  for  salvation  was 
on  Christ  alone,  whom  he  had  so  often  and  so 
earnestly  preached  as  the  only  Savior  of  sin- 
ners. He  greatly  lamented  his  want  of  fervor 
in  his  last  days,  and  expressed  the  thought  that 
it  was  not  desirable  for  Christians  to  live  to  old 
age,  as  they  could  not  have  the  fervor  of  youth. 
He  delighted  to  hear  the  voice  of  prayer  and 
praise  to  the  end,  as  they  ascended  from  the 
family  altar;  and  he  frequently  asked  his 
Christian  friends  to  remember  him  in  their 
prayers. 

He  died  on  the  evening  of  the  holy  Sabbath. 
In  the  morning  of  that  day,  the  late  Rev.  Dr. 
Ryors  called  to  see  him.  The  particulars  of 
that  interview  can  not  now  be  given;  but  his 
reply  to  various  epiestions  was  clear  and  expres- 
sive of  a  good  hope  of  eternal  life.  Two  of 
his  children  remained  with  him,  while  others 
of  the  household  went  to  the  sanctuary.  With 
unusual  animation  he  spoke  to  them  of  a  pas- 
sage of  Dr.  Scott,  in  his  commentary  on  Ileb. 


152  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

vi :  11,  in  which  he  sets  forth  the  distinction 
between  the  assurance  of  the  understanding, 
the  assurance  of  faith,  and  the  assurance  of 
hope.  He  requested  the  volume  containing  it 
should  be  brought,  and  the  passage  read. 
(See  in  loco).  He  then  said  that  these  re- 
marks had  often  given  him  great  comfort'; 
and  it  is  probable  that  he  was  then  in  pos- 
session of  the  assurance  of  understanding,  of 
faith,  and  of  hope. 

This  was  the  last  conversation  he  had  with 
any  one  on  the  subject  of  religion.  Shortly 
after  it,  the  king  of  terrors  advanced  for  the 
final  conflict.  He  felt  that  the  hour  had  come. 
He  was  taken  with  severe  pain,  which  con- 
tinued for  two  or  three  hours;  after  which 
all  suffering  seemed  to  cease,  and,  at  about  ten 
o'clock,  Sabbath  evening,  Jan.  31,  1858,  he 
calmly  and  peacefully  fell  asleep  in  Jesus,  in 
the  eightieth  year  of  his  age. 

Two  days  afterward  his  surviving  sons  and 
daughters,  and  their  offspring,  his  neighbors 
and  his  spiritual  children,  assembled  in  the  old 
church  for  the  worship  of  God ;  and,  after 
that,  they  buried  him  in  the  adjacent  grave- 
yard among  the  pioneers  of  central  Kentucky  ; 
among  his  well  tried  friends,  and  among  those 
he  had  baptized  in  infancy,  married,  admitted 
to  the  flock  of  the  great  Shepherd,  and  then 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  153 

buried  in  the  hope  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead;  in  which  hope  he  too  was  buried. 

It  would  be  superfluous,  after  having  laid  be- 
fore the  reader  so  many  characteristic  pas- 
sages from  his  autobiography,  to  attempt  any 
formal  delineation  of  his  character  as  a  man 
and  as  a  Christian.  Native  good  sense,  shrewd- 
and  love  of  the  truth,  formed  the  basis  of 
his  intellectual  character;  unaffected  piety, 
zeal,  profound  knowledge  of  the  truthful,  con- 
secration to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  were 
the  elements  of  his  spiritual  life.  For  the  rest, 
his  hospitality  was  unbounded,  his  attachment 
to  his  friends  uncalculating,  his  moral  and  reli- 
gious character  were  without  a  stain. 

As  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel,  he  was  emin- 
ently sound  and  orthodox.  His  sermons  and 
his  writings  show  that  he  had  an  intelligent 
and  cordial  faith  in  the  doctrines  of  his  church. 
The  infinite  love  of  God  in  choosiug 
whom  he  would  make  the  heirs  of  salvation 
the  infinite  love  of  Christ  in  redeeming  the 
chosen  ones,  the  infinite  love  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  renewing  and  sanctifying  the  chosen  and  re- 
deemed ones,  was  the  Bubstance  of  his  preach- 
ing as  to  the  triune  God.  The  innate  depravity 
of  the  heart,  its  total  corruption  and  alienation 
from  God,  man's  entire  dependence  on  the 
grace  of  God  for  salvation,  was  the  substance 
15 


154  LIFE   OF   DK.    CLELAND. 

of  his  doctrine  concerning  man.  The  vicari- 
ous sacrifice  of  Christ,  propitiation  through  his 
blood,  salvation  by  his  name  and  by  that  name 
only,  was  his  fixed  and  inward  conviction  re- 
specting the  way  of  salvation. 

He  was,  in  a  degree,  perhaps,  unusually 
Scriptural  in  his  preaching.  His  sermons  con- 
sisted in  exposition  of  such  parts  of  the  Bible 
as  belonged  to  the  subjects  with  which  he  dealt 
in  the  pulpit.  The  attention  of  strangers  was 
most  forcibly  arrested  by  his  habit  of  quoting 
large  portions  of  the  sacred  Word,  making  the 
citations  with  verbal  accuracy,  and  giving  chap- 
ter and  verse  for  every  passage,  and  all  this 
from  his  memory,  which  seemed  never  at  fault 
even  in  the  very  letter  of  the  Divine  "Word.  He 
needed  neither  Bible  nor  concordance,  nor  even 
hymn  book  or  written  sermon.  "Thy  word 
have  I  hid  in  my  heart."  "Let  my  mouth 
be  filled  with  thy  praise."  "  My  tongue  is  the 
pen  of  the  ready  writer." 

Another  controlling  element  in  his  preach- 
ing, was  his  unaffected  simplicity.  He  sought 
not  the  applause  of  his  hearers,  he  was  intent 
on  winning  their  souls.  His  sermons  were  in- 
structive and  interesting  to  cultivated  minds, 
but  it  is  the  noblest  praise  to  say  of  him,  as  is 
said  of  his  Master,  "  the  common  people  heard 
him  gladly."     He  was,  in  the  best  sense  of  the 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  155 

term,  a  man  of  the  people.  lie  had  been  rear- 
ed among  them;  he  had  led  the  life  of  a  pio- 
neer; he  had  been  an  industrious,  frugal  man, 
associating  all  his  days  with  his  fellow  men  ; 
his  habits  and  manners  were  of  the  simplest 
type;  he  was  ever  in  lively  sympathy  with 
those  around  him. 

His  own  religious  experience  had  been  singu- 
larly sharp  and  diversified.  The  reader,  who 
has  attentively  considered  the  early  religious 
history  of  Dr.  Cleland,  as  it  is  set  forth  in 
the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters  of  this  volume, 
has  discovered  the  sources  of  his  well  known 
power  to  reveal  the  workings  of  the  human 
heart  in  its  conflicts  with  the  depraved  passions, 
the  suggestions  of  the  natural  conscience,  the 
temptations  of  Satan,  and  the  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

His  own  inward  struggles  had  taught  him 
how  to  interpret  the  spiritual  struggles  of  both 
sinner  and  saint  in  every  stage  of  religious 
anxiety.  Xot  having  himself  enjoyed  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  pious  parentage,  he  well  remem- 
bered the  darkness  and  ignorance  of  his  early 
years.  lie  depicts,  most  vividly,  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  awakened  sinner  in  the 
incidents  of  his  own  life  at  Greensburg:  when 
a  boy  of  eighteen,  he  stole  away  into  the 
woods,  hid  himself  in  a  sink  hole,  and  there 


156  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

prayed ;  opening  his  eyes,  even  In  that  lonely 
spot,  to  see  if  any  one  was  looking  at  him. 
He  discovered,  too,  the  characteristics  of  the 
timid  young  Christian  in  his  first  attempt  at 
family  prayer,  in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Bunlap,  at 
Pisgah;  and  he  experienced  one  of  the  deepest 
spiritual  troubles  known  to  the  youthful  disci- 
ple in  the  darkness  which  overtook  him  on  the 
occasion  of  his  first  communion  in  the  Lord's 
supper.  Then,  also,  the  help  which  the  Lord 
gave  him,  when  though  an  innkeeper,  he  setup 
the  family  altar ;  and,  when  led  on  step  by  step, 
he  became  successively  a  public  exhorter,  a  li- 
centiate, a  missionary  to  distant  and  frontier 
settlements,  a  pastor,  a  powerful  preacher  of 
the  Word  in  camp-meetings  and  other  great 
assemblies,  all  this  varied  religions  experience 
furnished  him  with  his  remarkable  wisdom  in 
winning  souls.  He  preached  from  the  heart, 
and  therefore  to  the  heart.  He  was  taught  of 
the  Spirit,  in  the  way  of  an  inward  and  poten- 
tial discipline,  and  he  was  able  to  teach  others, 
also.  He  was  a  steward  of  the  mysteries  of  God, 
for  these  had  been  revealed  within  his  own  bo- 
som. When  he  preached,  or  exhorted,  or  dealt 
with  the  consciences  of  men  in  private  conversa- 
tion, he  seemed  to  have  received,  if  we  may  so 
speak,  the  gift  of  discerning  spirits  : — a  rare  and 
inestimable  gift  to  the  minister  of  the  Word. 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  157 

To  these  qualifications  he  added  that  of  pow- 
erful appeal  to  the  hearts  of  men.  He  possess- 
ed a  certain  unusual  gift  of  pathos.  "When  in 
his  prime,  he  rarely  closed  his  sermon  without 
introducing  a  direct  address  to  the  emotions  of 
the  hearers,  and  this  appeal  was  so  affection- 
ate, so  tender,  uttered  in  the  tones  of  his 
sweet  voice,  and  with  the  beaming  of  his  en- 
gaging countenance,  that  the  audience  was  not 
unfrequently  melted  to  tears.  And  when  the 
spirit  of  God  was  poured  out  upon  him  and 
upon  his  hearers,  his  entreaties,  beseeching 
sinners  to  be  reconciled  to  God,  were  well  nigh 
irresistible.  His  words  were  clothed  with  that 
subtle,  indiscribable  power  which  we  call  unc- 
tion. It  is  not  natural  eloquence,  it  is  not  the 
result  of  education,  nor  the  product  of  human 
art  or  passion.  It  is  a  gift  of  the  spirit  of 
God  unto  him,  which  makes  him  mighty  in  the 
Scriptures,  full  of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  venerable  man  who  is  the  subject  of  this 
memoir  was  one  of  the  select  few  on  whom 
this  grace  has  been  bestowed. 


158  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Dr.  Cleland  as  a  Preacher. 

There  is  evidently  at  this  day  a  vast  differ- 
ence between  the  amount  of  preaching  we  have 
and  the  number  of  those  converted  by  it.  We 
can  not  account  for  this,  from  the  fact  that  we 
do  not  hear  the  same  gospel  now  that  was 
preached  by  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and 
subsequently  by  Paul,  and  Whitfield,  and  Ed- 
wards. Neither  has  that  gospel  ceased  to  be 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  Where  there 
is  so  much  preaching,  and  so  little  repenting,  it 
shows  that  there  is  something  wrong ;  or  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  something  wanting  in  such  min- 
istrations. What  can  it  be  ?  There  lies  some- 
where a  secret  element  of  success  in  preaching  the 
gospel,  which  has  been  practically  discovered 
by  only  a  few.  There  never  was  a  subject  pre- 
sented to  the  Church,  and  especially  to  her 
ministry,  of  more  practical  and  momentous 
importance  than  this. 

We  propose  to  offer  a  few  suggestions  upon 
this  point,  in  connection  with  the  ministerial 
labors  of  our  venerable  father,  Dr.  Cleland ;  be- 


LIFE    OF    DK.    GLELANB.  159 

cause  we  believe  that  his  manner  of  preaching 
was  a  practical  illustration  of  the  truths  which 
they  have  helped  to  suggest. 

We  all  readily  admit,  that  ''Paul  may  plant, 
and  Apollos  water,  hut  God  gives  the  increase," 
Christ  said;  "  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing'." 
Though  we  preach  with  the  tongues  of  men 
and  angels,  yet,  without  God's  spirit,  it  is  but 
as  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal.  Man 
can  not  convert  his  fellow-man  without  Di- 
vine aid. 

'Tis  equally  true,  that  God  has  ordained  the 
conversion  of  men  through  human  instrumen- 
tality— by  the  foolishness  of  preaching.  "How 
shall  they  believe  on  Him  of  whom  they  have 
not  heard,  and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher?"  The  two  agencies  must  somehow 
be  harmoniously  united.  There  is  somewhere 
a  point  of  contact  between  the  two.  The  one 
will  not,  and.  the  other  can  not  act  indepen- 
dently. 

'Tis  most  clear,  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose 
office  it  is  to  convince  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteousness,  and  judgment,  will  not,  under 
all  circumstances,  unite  his  agency  with  the 
agency  of  man. 

"  If  ye  abide  in  me,  and  my  words  abide  in 
you,  ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be 
done  unto  you."     Nothing,  then,  shall  be  im- 


160  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

possible  to  your  faith.  And  so  shall  ye  bear 
much  fruit."  The  world  will  believe  on  Christ 
when  Christ,  and  his  people,  and  ministering 
servants  are  in  holy  union  and  fellowship — but 
not  otherwise.  They  must  have  the  indwelling 
of  the  Sjnrit.  They  may  have  all  else — learning, 
talents,  eloquence,  genius  —  but  it  will  avail 
nothing  without  God's  spirit.  Paul  unravels 
the  whole  secret  of  his  success.  He  had  the 
"  unction  of  the  Holy  Ghost"— "And  I,  brethren, 
came  to  you  not  with  excellency  of  speech,  or 
of  wisdom,  declaring  unto  you  the  testimony 
of  God.  And  my  speech,  and  my  preaching 
was  not  in  the  enticing  word's  of  man's  wisdom, 
but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  and  of  power. 
That  your  faith  should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of 
men,  but  in  the  power  of  God." — I.  Cor.  ii :  1-5. 

Dr.  CI  el  and  possessed  this  "  unction  of  the 
Spirit "  to  a  remarkable  degree.  His  preaching' 
was  '-  with  power"  because  accompanied  with 
"  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  Church  is  ever  ready  to  acknowledge 
her  dependence  upon  the  Spirit.  This  is  espe- 
cially true  of  the  ministry.  This  is  well.  It  is 
a  very  important  admission.  But  there  yet 
remains  a  far  deeper,  wider,  higher,  and  vastly 
more  important  truth  for  her  to  discover,  and 
practically  realize,  before  "the  Kingdom  of 
God  will  come  with  power,  and  great  glory," 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  K-1 

It  is  that  she  and  her  ministry  must  have  the 
indwelling  and  fellowship  of  the  Spirit.  To  f< 
the  need  of  a  medicine  never  heals*  To  feci  the 
want  of  it  is  one  thing,  but  to  enjoy  its  healing 
and  life-giving  virtues  is  another  thing.  The 
former  can  do  no  good  whatever,  without  the 
latter.  We  may  preach  the  gospel  in  its  purity 
and  simplicity,  and  with  an  acknowledged 
dependence  upon  God,  and  yet  not  have  the 
unction,  or  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit,  and  it  will 
not  be  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  There 
is  none  of  the  power  of  God  in  such  preaching ; 
and  what  is  more,  the  salvation  of  those  who 
hear  such  a  gospel,  stands  in  the  wisdom  of 
men,  and  not  in  the  power  of  God.  Such 
preaching  brings  none  to  life,  because  the  life- 
giving  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  in  it. 
It  is  unsuccessful  because  it  is  unsavory.  The 
most  learned,  eloquent,  pungent,  and  faithful 
presentation  of  the  truth  from  the  pulpit,  deliv- 
ered, it  may  be,  "with  tongues  of  men  and 
angels,"  will  be  but  "  as  sounding  brass,  or 
a  tinkling  cymbal,"  unless  accompanied  with 
the  indwelling  spirit  and  life-giving  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Ah,  here  lies  that  mysterious 
dissolvent  that  turns  hearts  of  stone  into  hearts 
of  flesh  I 

A  minister   not  imbued  with  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  is  like   Sampson  shorn  of  his  locks. 


102  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

His  strength  is  gone,  because  "  he  wist  not  that 
the  Spirit  of  God  had  departed  from  him." 
Here  lays  the  source  of  his  strength.  But  let 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  but  return  unto  him 
again,  he  will  then  bow  himself,  and  by  the 
borrowed  strength  of  an  omnipotent  God  drag 
the  pillars  of  the  temple  of  sin  in  the  dust. 

"  It  is  high  time,"  says  Dr.  Phillip,  in  his  life 
of  Whitfield,  "  that  the  church  of  Christ  should 
consider,  not  only  the  duty  of  depending  upon 
the  Spirit,  but  also  the  import,  and  the  import- 
ance of  the  '  demonstration  of  the  Spirit '  in 
preaching."  That  is  more  than  the  demonstra- 
tion of  orthodoxy,  of  sound  scholarship  and  hard 
study.  It  is  even  more  than  the  demonstration 
of  sincerity  and  fidelity,  or  of  great  heat  and 
zeal,  of  loud  and  boisterous  declamation.  To 
preach  in  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  is 
even  more  than  to  bring  out  the  mind  of  the 
Spirit  faithfully  and  fully.  What  the  "  Spirit 
saith  to  the  churches,"  may  be  repeated  to  the 
churches  without  evasion  or  flattering;  but  it 
will  not  be  heard  as  his  counsel,  or  consolation, 
unless  it  is  spoken  with  something  of  his  love 
and  solemnity. 

This  will  be  more  obvious  by  looking  at  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  In  him  it  was  grace,  as 
well  as  truth.  All  his  heart,  and  soul,  and 
strength,  breathes  and  burns  in  his  words.     His 


LIFE    OP   DR.    CLELAND.  1U-J 

motives  arc  a  part  of  his  meaning.  He  makes 
ns  to  feel  that  he  feels  more  for  souls  than 
words  can  express.  He  compels  us  to  see  a 
beaming  of  earnestness  in  his  eye,  to  hear  a 
beating  of  intense  solicitude  in  his  heart,  and 
to  recognize  a  fixedness  of  purpose  in  his  man- 
ner, unspeakably  beyond  what  he  says.  The 
real  pleading  of  our  Saviour  for  sinners  begins 
when  his  words  end.  His  weeping  silence,  after 
speaking  as  never  man  spake,  tells  more  of  his 
gracious  love  for  souls,  than  all  his  gracious 
words.  "We  feel  that  he  feels  he  has  gained 
nothing  by  preaching,  unless  he  has  won  souls. 
He  leaves  the  conviction  upon  every  heart  that 
nothing  can  please  him  but  the  heart.  Xo  man 
ever  rose,  or  can  rise,  from  reading  the  entreat- 
ies of  Christ,  without  feeling  that  he  is  in 
earnest  to  save  souls.  So  the  apostles  tried  to 
put  themselves  in  Christ's  stead,  when  he  was 
no  longer  upon  earth  to  beseech  men  to  be 
reconciled  to  God.  The}7-  were  not  content  to 
say  what  Christ  said;  but  as  he  said  it,- in  the 
demonstration  of  his  Spirit.  They  could  not 
realize  fully  the  manner  in  which  God  would 
plead  his  own  cause,  were  he  upon  earth.  But 
still  their  reasoning  was  not  unlike  his  manifold 
wisdom  ;  nor  their  appeal  unworthy  of  his  pa- 
ternal tenderness ;  nor  their  remonstrances  in- 
consistent with  his  judicial  authority.     There 


164  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

was  a  fine  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
boldness  of  Peter,  in  the. sublimity  of  Paul,  and 
in  the  heavenliness  of  John. 

Nothing  is  so  simple,  and  yet  nothing  is  so 
sublime,  as  preaching  the  gospel  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven.  Any  prayerful, 
thoughtful  minister  may  preach  in  this  Spirit, 
for  it  neither  includes  nor  excludes  great  tal- 
ents, learning  or  ingenuity.  "  The  unction  of 
the  Holy  Spirit"  can  subordinate  the  mightiest 
and  masterliest  minds  to  the  one  grand  object 
of  watching  for  souls.  It  can  also  render  sub- 
servient and  successful  the  most  ordinary  pow- 
ers of  mind.  The  acute  reasonings  of  Wesley, 
and  the  warmhearted  beseechings  of  Whitfield, 
are  alike  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit. 

In  like  manner  many  of  their  uneducated 
colleagues  turned  many  to  righteousness,  and 
were  themselves  turned  into  stars  that  shall 
shine  forever  in  the  firmament  of  the  Church  in 
both  worlds.  The  secret  of  their  success  was 
the  same  in  both  classes  of  preachers  —  their 
heart,  their  soul,  and  their  all  was  in  the  work. 
Truth  had  the  force  of  divine  truth,  the  fire  of 
eternal  truth,  the  glory  of  saving  truth  upon 
their  minds.  Accordingly  the  regular  congre- 
gations, and  the  promiscuous  crowds  felt  that 
they  were  on  fire  to  watch  for  souls,  and  were 
compelled  to  admit  that  even  men  who  had 


LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND.  165 

not  been  to  the  University  had  been  with  Jesus 
and  were  indeed  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Happily  this   spirit  can  not   be  imitated  in 
preaching.     It  may  be  imbibed  and  breathed 

by  any  devotional  minister;  but  it  can  not  be 
copied.  No  tones,  looks,  or  tears  can  demon- 
strate the  presence  of  the  Spirit  in  a  sermon,  if 
the  preacher  be  not  in  the  Spirit  before  coming 
into  the  pulpit.  Neither  the  melting,  nor  the 
kindling  of  men  half  devoted,  can  melt  down, 
or  wield  an  audience  by  the  gospel !  because  the 
Holy  Ghost  will  not  honor  fits  and  starts  of 
fidelity.  Never  does  a  preacher  dupe  himself, 
or  endanger  others  more,  than  when  he  ima- 
gines that  the  Spirit  will  give  power  to  the  gos- 
pel among  his  people,  while  he  has  not  power 
upon  himself.  God  makes  his  ministers  a  bles- 
sing to  others,  by  blessing  themselves  first.  He 
first  works  in  them,  and  then  by  them.  A 
minister  ought  to  be  as  much  ashamed,  and 
more  afraid  of  being  unbaptized  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  fire,  than  of  being  ignorant  of  the 
original  languages.  Men  who  can  demonstrate 
the  problems  of  Euclid,  or  the  import  of  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  idioms,  have  no  excuse  for 
not  being  able  to  preach  the  gospel  with  the 
demonstration  of  the  Holy  Ghost ! 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  given  to  the  Church  as  a 
blessed  and  permanent  legacy.     And  that  Spirit 


166  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

abides  in  her,  so  that  whatever  she  may  ask 
will  be  granted  unto  her.  "Without  me  ye  can 
do  nothing"  said  Christ.  'Tis  a  truth  equally 
important,  that  "  through  Christ  she  can  do  all 
things"  The  resources  of  the  Church  are  un- 
limited and  omnipotent j  did  she  but  know  how 
to  avail  herself  of  them.  We  believe  that  the 
practical  development  of  this  great  truth  will 
soon  "give  the  kingdom,  and  the  dominion, 
and  greatness  of  the  kingdom  to  the  saints  of 
the  Most  High." 

There  has  always  resided  in  steam  an  expan- 
sive power,  by  which  the  commerce  of  the 
world  might  always  have  been  transported, 
books  printed,  clothing  for  the  world  manufac- 
tured— -thereby  almost  annihilating  the  ancient 
curse,  which  doomed  the  race  to  unremitting 
labor — yet  the  world  for  generations  remained 
in  ignorance  of  its  properties,  or  knew  not  how 
to  avail  themselves  of  them.  But  now,  behold 
what  a  revolution  that  single  discovery  has 
made !  So  Grod  has  deposited  the  influences  of 
his  Spirit  with  his  Church — his  word  and  ordi- 
nances. All  that  is  wonderful  in  his  wisdom, 
mighty  in  his  power,  and  glorious  in  his  grace, 
is  offered  to  the  Church,  without  limit  or  re- 
serve— u  All,  all  are  yours."  But  through  her 
ignorance  and  inaptitude,  the  Church  has  failed 
hitherto,  to  rightly  develop  her  resources.     We 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  167 

think  ill  ore  is  a  wonderful  significancy  in  the 
teachings  of  our  Saviour,  in  the  fifteenth  chap- 
ter of  John,  which  has  hitherto  not  been  clearly 
understood  by  the  Church  at  large.  But  we 
trust  the  day  will  soon  come,  when  she  will 
know  how  to  avail  herself  of  all  the  resources 
of  omnipotent  power  and  grace  bequeathed 
unto  her.  Then  she  will  arise  and  shine,  her 
light  being  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
risen  upon  her. 

We  have  made  these  remarks  in  connection 
with  the  name  of  Dr.  Cleland,  because  we  be- 
lieve they  have  received,  to  a  good  degree,  a 
practical  illustration  in  his  public  ministrations. 
He  was  a  man  of  acknowledged  power  in  the 
pulpit.  Not  only  the  "  common  people,"  but  all 
elapses  "  heard  him  gladly,"  and  hundreds,  if  not 
thousands  to  the  everlasting  joy  of  their  souls. 
His  manner  of  preaching  was  plain  and  simple, 
without  any  attempt  at  fine  style,  or  demon- 
stration of  the  words  of  man's  wisdom.  His 
address  was  familiar,  affectionate,  and  conver- 
sational. His  style  plain  Saxon,  highly  Scrip- 
tural, and  didactic.  His  voice  was  remarkably 
clear  and  melodious,  and  "  was  to  them  as  a 
very  lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant 
voice,  and  can  play  well  upon  an  instrument;" 
and  being  possessed   of  a  clear  knowledge  of 


168  LIFE    OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

human  nature,  he  knew  bow,  as  a  skillful  player, 
to  touch  the  responsive  chords  of  sympathy  in 
the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  His  enunciation, 
though  rapid,  was  distinct,  and  impressive. 
There  was  a  convincing  earnestness  in  his  man- 
ner, that  at  once  impressed  his  audience  with 
the  force  of  his  convictions.  But  above  all, 
there  was  an  holy  unction,  a  heavenly,  touching 
pathos,  that  is  wholly  indescribable,  which  gave 
a  lustre  to  his  eye,  a  tremulous  sweetness  to  his 
voice,  a  beaming  of  affection  to  his  countenance, 
and  an  intense  earnestness  to  his  manner. 
Here  we  think  "  lay  the  hidings  of  his  power." 
In  one  corner  of  his  garden  was  permitted  to 
grow  up  a  tall,  dense  clump  of  cane.  If  you 
would  trace  the  hard-beaten  path  to  a  certain 
sacred  spot,  still  more  firmly  beaten,  you  would 
soon  learn  where  he  obtained  these  hidingsrof 
his  power.  Oh,  there  is  a  wonderful  connec- 
tion between  callous  knees  and  the  tremulous 
cry,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? " 

In  the  prime  of  his  life  his  discourses  were 
usually  from  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a  half  in 
length ;  but  they  were  listened  to  with  unabated, 
yea,  increasing  interest  to  the  last.  The  first 
hour  was  taken  up  in  expounding  the  text,  and 
discussing  the  leading  topic  of  the  discourse ; 
and  when  he  had  gotten  the  subject  fully  before 
the  minds  of  his  hearers,  he  would  then  enforce 


LIFE    OP    DR.    CLELAND.  169 

the  whole  by  a  most  animated  and  moving 
exhortation.  His  manner  was  so  earnest,  and 
often  vehement,  but  never  boisterous,  that  all 
the  clothing  next  to  his  person  was  perfectly 
saturated  with  perspiration;  and  oftentimes 
the  effect  upon  his  audience  was  overpowering. 
The  house  was  usually  filled  to  its  utmost 
capacity.  Under  these  most  melting  appeals 
the  whole  congregation  were  bowed  upon  their 
seats,  and  forcibly  reminded  one  of  a  wheat- 
field  after  a  storm  had  passed  over  it.  There 
would  not  be  a  dry  eye  in  the  whole  house. 
It  would  seem  as  if  the  flinty  rock  had  been 
smitten  by  the  hand  of  Moses.  Oftentimes 
many  could  not  refrain  from  weeping  aloud, 
while  others  rejoiced  before  the  Lord.  Some- 
times scores  were  convicted  under  one  such 
discourse.  He  had  at  one  time  a  continuous 
revival  of  seven  years  in  one  of  his  churches. 
Nor  were  his  labors  confined  to  his  own  field ; 
other  churches  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his  labors. 
Those  four-days  meetings  were  often  signalized 
by  a  wonderful  outpouring  of  God's  Spirit; 
and  during  such  occasions  as  high  as  from 
twenty  to  sixty  have  been  hopefully  converted 
to  Christ. 

In  the  year  1809  he  attended  as  Commis- 
sioner,  the  General  Assembly  at  Philadelphia. 
Dr.  Alexander  was   then  pastor  of  the  church 
1G 


170  LIFE   OF   DR.    CLELAND. 

in  which,  the  Assembly  held  its  sessions.  He 
requested  Mr.  Cleland  to  preach  for  him  on 
Sabbath  night.  He  asked  Dr.  A.  how  the  peo- 
ple of  Philadelphia  liked  Western  preaching. 
"Very  well,"  replied  the  Dr.,  "when  they 
preach  in  the  same  manner  they  do  at  home. 
But  when  they  try  to  preach  like  the  preachers 
in  the  East,  they  spoil  it  all."  "  Thank  you, 
Dr.,  I  will  try  and  profit  by  the  suggestion," 
said  Mr.  C.  to  himself.  His  theme,  that  night, 
was  the  "  Heavenly  Society,"  from  Rev.  vii :  9. 
Nearly  the  whole  Assembly  were  present.  He 
alluded  to  the  fact  that,  that  day,  they  had  been 
scattered  and  divided ;  but  the  day  was  not  far 
distant  when  they  should  all  meet  at  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  and  Church  of  the  First  Born 
in  heaven.  He  preached  in  his  usual  style,  with 
great  fervor  and  unction.  The  entire  congre- 
gation, preachers  and  people,  were  melted  into 
tears.  He  was  from  that  time  called  "  The 
little  Whitfield  of  the  West." 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  effective  sermons 
that  he  ever  preached  was  delivered  at  Union 
church.  He  was  on  his  way  to  an  appointment 
of  his  own,  and  stopped  by  the  way  to  listen  to 
a  discourse  by  a  Methodist  preacher.  In  the 
run  of  his  discourse  the  speaker  indulged  in  a 
little  invective  against  what  he  regarded  as  a 
very  great  heresy.     He  denounced  Calvinism 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  171 

k-  as  begotten  of  the  devil  and  hatched  in  hell." 
On  his   return   on   Monday  following,  Mr.    C. 

found  the  meeting  still  in  progress,  and  attend- 
ed with  considerable  interest.  Both  of  the 
preachers  on  the  ground  had.  in  the  meantime, 
become  so  exhausted  and  hoarse,  that  they 
could  neither  exhort  nor  preach.  "  Mr.  C,  you 
must  preach  for  us."  "Ah,  but  if  I  do,  I  will 
be  compelled  to  preach  that  doctrine  which  you 
dislike  so  much."  "Ah,  never  mind  that  now." 
So  lie  consented  to  preach,  and  took  for  his 
discourse  that  singular  text,  "Take  us  the, 
foxes,  the  little  foxes  that  spoil  the  vines." 

After  describing  the  destructive  nature  of 
these  little  animals,  he  made  a  spiritual,  and, 
perhaps,  a  somewhat  personal,  application  of 
the  subject.  "  There  are  many  kinds  of  foxes," 
said  he ;  "  but,  perhaps,  the  most  mischievous 
of  all  is  that  old  fox  with  his  long  grey  beard, 
called  prejudice"  And,  after  having  dealt  a  se- 
vere and  justly  merited  rebuke  as  the  case  de- 
manded, he  proceeded  to  a  more  general  appli- 
cation of  the  subject  to  his  congregation. 
Many  of  them  began  to  weep  aloud ;  and,  be- 
fore he  was  done,  multitudes  lay  all  around  him 
prostrated  upon  tiie  ground,  and  crying  for 
mercy,  until  his  own  voice  was  so  drowned 
that  he  was  compelled  to  desist.  And  from 
that  time  on,  as  long  as  the  meeting  continued, 


172  LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND. 

in  every  prayer  and  exhortation  the  cry  was, 
"  Lord,  take  us  the  foxes,  the  little  foxes  that 
spoil  the  vines." 

Dr.  C.  could  tell  an  anecdote,  or  weave  in  a 
passing  incident,  with  great  effect.  We  will  il- 
lustrate this  remark  by  only  a  single  instance. 
When  near  the  close  of  his  life,  he  was  visited 
by  his  two  sons  in  the  ministry,  at  the  time  of 
his  usual  sacramental  meeting.  At  that  time 
Mrs.  C.  was  confined  to  her  dying  bed.  He 
alluded,  in  his  remarks — as  he  arose  to  admin- 
ister the  communion — to  the  conflicting  emo- 
tions that  filled  his  heart.  He  felt  that  he  was 
near  the  end  of  life ;  his  work  on  earth  would 
soon  be  ended.  But  he  rejoiced  that  there 
were  those  upon  whom  his  mantle  would  rest, 
when  he  was  no  more.  He  said,  he  felt  as  did 
Father  G-eno,  a  venerable  Baptist  minister,  who 
some  years  before  had  been  unexpectedly  vis- 
ited by  his  son,  the  Rev.  Stephen  Geno,  of 
Baltimore.  The  old  man,  at  an  Association  of 
his  church,  gave  utterance  to  his  feelings,  by 
taking  for  his  text,  "  Thou  hast  comforted  me 
by  the  coming  of  Stephanus"  After  making  a 
touching  application  of  this  incident,  Dr.  0. 
then  paused,  looking  down  to  the  vacant  seat, 
so  long  occupied  by  one  so  long  endeared  to 
them  all,  he  added  with  a  pathos,  that  at  once 
touched   every  heart,  and    moved   the  whole 


LIFE    OF    DR.    CLELAND.  173 

assembly  to  tears — "  but  there  is  one  absent, 
who  has  oft  communed  with  us;  but  she  will 

not  drink  this  wine  with   us   any  more,  until 
she  drinks  it  anew  in  our  Father's  kingdom." 

Dr.  C.  had  no  less  influence  with  his  people 
out  of  his  pulpit  than  in  it.  He  possessed  a 
happy  art  in  talking  to  them  personally,  upon 
the  subject  of  their  souls'  salvation.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  wisdom  in  managing  his  temporal 
affairs,  and  of  equal  prudence  in  attending  to 
the  concerns  of  others.  And  perhaps  no  man 
ever  lived,  who  so  effectually  succeeded,  unin- 
tentionally in  many  things,  in  stamping  the 
impress  of  his  own  character  upon  all  those 
around  him. 

So  thus,  by  his  perfect  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart,  by  his  exemplary  prudence,  by 
his  holy  walk  and  conversation,  and  his  faithful 
preaching  of  Christ  and  him  crucified,  he  has 
turned  many  to  righteousness,  and  is  himself 
turned  into  a  star  that  shall  shine  forever  and 
ever  in  the  firmament  of  heaven. 


174  APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


[We  take  the  liberty  to  subjoin  the  folio w- 
ing  notice  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Cleland,  as  a 
very  brief  and  condensed,  but  just  and  compre- 
hensive estimate  of  his  character,  taken  from 
the  "Presbyterian  Expositor."  The  article  is 
from  the  pen  of  Rev.  Nathan  L.  Rice,  D.  D., 
Chicago,  111.] 

Death  of  Rev.  Thomas  Clelaxd,  D.  D. — This 
venerable  minister  of  Christ  closed  his  earthly 
career  on  the  31st  of  January,  in  the  eightieth 
year  of  his  age. 

From  early  childhood,  the  name  of  Dr.  Cle- 
land has  been  as  familiar  to  us  as  household 
words.  One  of  the  churches  of  which  he  was, 
for  many  years,  pastor,  that  in  Harrodsburg,  is 
within  twelve  miles  of  the  place  where  our 
youthful  days  were  spent;  and  frequently  he 
visited  that  neighborhood  for  the  purpose  of 
preaching  the  gospel  to  a  feeble  church,  or  to 
solemnize  marriages.  His  sterling  integrity, 
his  earnest  piety,  his  sound  judgment  and  his 
pulpit   eloquence,   gave   him    great    influence 


APPENDIX.  175 

among  the  people;  and  the  announcement  that 
he  was  to  preach,  always  collected  a  large 
audience. 

For  many  years,  Dr.  Cleland  was,  we  believe, 
the  most  popular  Presbyterian  preacher  in  Ken- 
tucky; and  as  he  possessed  a  robust  constitu- 
tion, preached  extemporaneously,  commonly 
using  a  brief  skeleton,  and  spoke  with  extraor- 
dinary ease  to  himself;  his  labors  were  much 
in  demand.  Few  ministers,  we  believe,  have 
enjoyed  more  extensive  usefulness,  both  in  the 
conversion  of  sinners  and  in  the  edification  of 
believers.  In  several  respects,  he  was  an  extra- 
ordinary preacher.  He  preached  more  on  doc- 
trinal subjects  than  most  ministers;  and  he  had 
the  happy  tact  of  so  illustrating  doctrinal  truths 
as  to  strike  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  at  the 
same  time  their  practical  bearing  was  exhibited 
with  great  effect.  He  was  accustomed  to  con- 
verse familiarly  with  all  classes  of  persons,  in 
all  states  of  mind ;  and  thus  he  learned,  what 
many  ministers  never  learn,  how  to  preach  to 
the  people. 

The  great  excellency  of  his  sermons,  and  one 
principal  secret  of  his  success,  was,  that  they 
abounded  in  Scripture  quotations  and  explana- 
tions. He  did  literally  "preach  the  word."  A 
rich  Christian  experience  enabled  him  to  preach 


176  APPENDIX. 

with  far  greater  effect  the  precious  truths,  the 
power  of  which  his  own  heart  had  felt. 

Dr.  Cleland  had  an  extraordinary  control 
over  the  sympathic  feelings  of  his  hearers. 
There  was  something  peculiar  in  the  tones  of 
his  voice,  adapted  to  awaken  in  the  minds  of 
others  the  strong  emotions  of  his  own ;  and 
not  unfrequently  he  introduced  an  anecdote, 
which  he  could  tell  with  great  effect.  Under 
his  melting  appeals,  we  have  repeatedly  seen 
almost  the  entire  congregation  weeping,  and  in 
one  or  two  instances,  have  heard  them  sob  and 
even  cry  out.  We  have  known  no  man  who 
could  so  control  the  feelings  of  his  hearers,  as 
Dr.  Cleland,  when  in  his  happiest  moods. 

His  social  qualities  added  much  to  Dr.  Cle- 
land's  influence.  He  was  the  furthest  possible 
from  moroseness;  and  he  had  none  of  that 
'professional  dignity,  which  rendered  it  difficult 
for  either  old  or  young  persons  to  approach 
him.  And  if  he  could  tell  anecdotes  in  the 
pulpit,  which  would  draw  tears  from  all  eyes, 
he  could  as  readily  tell  anecdotes  in  the  social 
circle,  that  would  convulse  all  with  laughter. 
Few  ministers,  we  believe,  enjoyed  a  more  uni- 
form cheerfulness,  or  contributed  more  to  the 
cheerfulness  of  those  around  him. 

Dr.  Cleland  was  remarkable  for  the  punctual 
fulfillment  of  his  appointments,  and  for  his  uni- 


APPENDIX.  177 

form  attendance  upon  the  meetings  of  church 
courts.  His  efficiency,  however,  was  mainly  in 
the  pulpit,  not  in  ecclesiastical  bodies.  His 
writing's  were  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively,  of  a 
controversial  character.  He  did  important  ser- 
vice in  the  controversy  with  Barton  W.  Stone, 
and  published  some  good  tracts  on  Campbell- 
ism.  His  forte,  however,  was  in  the  pulpit. 
lie  published  a  Hymn-Book,  which  was  much 
used  in  Kentucky  from  twenty-five  to  thirty 
years  ago. 

Having  known  him  for  many  years,  we  were 
prepared  for  the  announcement,  that  he  has 
been  looking  forward  "with  pleasing  anticipa- 
tion to  the  period  of  his  release."  His  ministry 
extended  through  a  period  of  about  fifty-four 
years.  He  reared  a  large  family  of  children, 
two  of  whom  are  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and 
one  is  the  wife  of  a  minister. 

This  imperfect  tribute  we  feel  constrained  to 
pay  to  the  memory  of  one  whom  we  have  long 
loved,  from  whom  we  and  our  father's  family 
have  received  spiritual  benefits  in  past  years. 

[The  following  communication  is  from  the 
pen  of  Rev.  Harvey  Woods,  Cookville,  Miss.] 

Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, — I  was  much  pleased  to 

hear  that  you  are  preparing  a  memoir  of  your 

venerable  father.     I  trust  you  will  succeed  in 

rearing  a  monument  worthy  of  the  subject,  and 

17 


178  APPENDIX. 

thus  leave  to  posterity  a  grateful  testimonial  to 
the  excellence  of  a  great  and  good  man. 

1  would  contribute  a  stone  to  aid  in  the  struc- 
ture— a  tribute  to  private,  Christian,  and  min- 
isterial worth.  I,  therefore,  willingly  comply 
with  your  request,  in  "giving  such  facts,  im- 
pressions, etc.,  of  him,"  as  I  can  recall. 

Among  my  early  recollections  in  Tennessee, 
almost  fifty  years  ago,  were  conversations, 
among  my  relatives,  in  relation  to  your  father. 
My  parents  were  brought  up  in  Kentucky, 
amid  the  privations  and  dangers  of  frontier 
and  station  life ;  and,  like  yours,  they  shared 
in  the  revival  that  characterized  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  in  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee. 

My  parents  were  only  occasional  hearers  of 
your  father,  but  were  most  favorably  impressed, 
and  strongly  attached  to  him.  The  young  man 
who  taught  the  first  school  to  which  I  was  sent 
was  brought  up  at  Paint  Lick.  He  afterward 
became  my  uncle  by  marriage,  and  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  high  regard  he  had  for  your 
father,  he  named  his  oldest  son  "Oleland," 
This  would  lead  me  and  others  to  inquire, 
why  he  was  so  named  ;  and  this  doubtless  led 
to  many  an  animated  conversation  about  the 
distant  and  distinguished  young  preacher. 
Long   years   before   I    saw   him  I  had    made 


APPENDIX.  179 

his  acquaintance  in  this  kind  of  traditional 
manner. 

I  was  taught  to  regard  ministers  with  vener- 
ation. My  early  impressions  as  to  your  father 
could  not  have  been  otherwise  than  favorable — 
my  prepossessions  strong.  Like  other  young 
people  of  that  day,  I  was  curious  to  see  great 
men,  and  especially  great  preachers.  But  my 
curiosity,  in  this  case,  was  not  gratified  till 
some  years  after  I  entered  the  ministry. 

I  have  often  heard  of  "  great  men"  and  have 
been  curious  to  see  them.  But  I  have  fre- 
quently felt  that  they  were  great  men  made  of 
small  material — men  of  great  pretensions — 
great  because  their  fathers  were  great — great 
mainly  because  of  their  great  vanity,  or  great 
ambition — that  their  greatness  was  fictitious, 
or  accidental — the  result  of  happening,  in  a 
political  or  theological  scuffle,  to  fall  upper- 
most, or  of  luckily  falling  on  the  strong  side  in 
times  of  high  party  excitement.  But  I  was 
never  disappointed  in  Dr.  Cleland.  He  was 
naturally,  intrinsically  great,  aside  from  all 
partyism,  or  accidental  cans 

I  first  saw  him  in  April,  1834,  at  a  meeting 
of  Transylvania  Presbytery,  in  Glasgow,  Ky., 
to  which  place  I  had  removed  in  1833.  My 
second  daughter  was  then  an  infant.  I  had 
written  to  Ifcev.  Wm.  L.  Brecken ridge,  then  of 


180  APPENDIX. 

Danville,  the  only  one  of  the  Transylvania 
brethren  with  whom  I  had  formed  an  acquaint- 
ance, requesting  him,  at  the  meeting  of  Pres- 
bytery, to  administer  the  ordinance  of  baptism, 
and  to  deliver  an  address  appropriate.  He 
wrote  to  me  that  as  Dr.  Cleiand  was  familiar 
with  the  subject,  he  would  engage  his  services 
for  me  on  that  occasion. 

Many  persons  at  Glasgow,  like  myself,  had 
never  seen  him,  but  had  often  heard  of  him. 
On  that  occasion  they  had  the  pleasure  of  see- 
ing and  hearing  for  themselves.  The  address 
on  Sabbath  morning  on  baptism  I  particularly 
remember.  It  will  long  be  remembered  by  per- 
sons at  that  place ;  it  convinced  some  who  had 
always  been  Baptists  in  sentiment,  that  immer- 
sion is  not  necessary.  Children  more  than 
thirty  miles  from  Glasgow,  whose  parents  had 
hitherto  neglected  their  baptism,  were  soon 
after  baptized. 

At  that  meeting  I  became  acquainted  with 
Dr.  Cleiand.  We  often  corresponded,  especi- 
ally while  I  remained  in  Kentucky.  But,  as 
our  correspondence  was  mainly  about  ecclesi- 
astical affairs,  it  would  not  interest  the  Chris- 
tian public.  I  have  been  at  your  father's  house, 
and  he  has  been  at  mine.  AVe  have  been 
together  often  at  meetings,  conventions,  pres- 
byteries, and  synods,  and  once  in  the  General 


APPENDIX.  181 

Assembly.  I  found  him  every  where  the  same 
unpretending,  unambitious,  conscientious,  firm, 
and  reliable  man  and  minister. 

"When  I  first  saw  him,  it  might  have  been 
said  he  was  growing  old;  but  "his  eye  was 
not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated."  In 
stature  he  was  not  above  a  medium  hight,  but 
he  had  a  stout  and  vigorous  frame,  inclining  to 
corpulency.  Men  learned  in  such  things,  I 
doubt  not,  would  say  he  had  a  head  admirably 
formed,  indicating  benevolence,  firmness,  fancy, 
genius,  and  power. 

His  mental  character  was  well  balanced. 
Nature  gave  him  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body.  Though  at  an  early  day  in  Kentucky 
his  opportunities  for  intellectual  culture  may 
not  have  been  of  the  highest  order,  yet  all  who 
are  acquainted  with  his  preaching  and  his 
writings  must  accord  to  him  attainments  of  no 
common  order.  In  youth  he  improved  what 
opportunities  he  had.  Having  a  strong  and 
active  mind,  and  a  retentive  memory,  and  giv- 
ing himself  to  his  profession,  and  to  a  judicious 
course  of  reading,  he  deserved  to  rank  high  as 
a  theologian.  His  letters  and  his  writings 
evince  the  correctness  of  his  scholarship. 

His  long  ministerial  life  was  also  character- 
ized by  commendable  assiduity."  He  was  not 
the  man,  to  be  sure,  to  go  blind  at  30,  by  pour- 


182  APPENDIX. 

ing  over  books  at  midnight  hours,  nor  to  kill 
himself  at  40  by  sedentary  and  abstemious 
habits,  nursing  a  torpid  liver,  or  taking  pills  to 
cure  the  dyspepsia.  In  nothing  did  he  exhibit 
more  good  sense  than  in  the  proper  distribu- 
tion of  his  time,  between  exercise,  riding, 
preaching,  study,  sleep,  rest,  etc.  ISTor  did  he 
lay  his  armor  off,  and  cease  to  study  and  work, 
when  he  became  old.  The  last  meeting  but 
one  (1854)  of  the  General  Assembly  which  he 
attended  was  in  "Washington  City  in  1852. 
During  that  meeting  the  Assembly,  in  a  body, 
on  the  22d  May,  made  a  visit  to  Mt.  Vernon. 
By  the  way  I  asked  him  his  age.  Said  he,  "  I 
am  74  years  old  to-day."  Though  he  was  now 
old,  and  but  the  wreck  of  his  former  self,  in 
personal  appearance,  yet  he  would  not  ask  to 
be  excused  from  work.  He  was  there  far  from 
home,  representing  his  Presbytery  in  the  As- 
sembly. At  the  same  meeting  he  told  me  he 
had  with  him  his  manuscript  work  on  Baptism, 
which  has  since  been  published,  and  which,  in 
the  estimation  of  good  judges,  is,  for  popular 
reading,  one  of  the  ablest  works  on  the  subject 
in  our  language. 

When  the  Assembly  adjourned,  we  took  the 
same  train,  and  happened  to  occupy  the  same 
car,  till  we  got  to  the  Relay  House.  There  we 
parted,  and  I  saw  him  no  more.     I  took  the 


APPENDIX.  183 

cars  for  Cumberland,  and  ho  for  Saratoga,  in 
the  discharge  of  ministerial  duty,  of  which  I 
may  say  something  in  another  place. 

Would  that  I  could  say  something  worthy  of 
Dr.  Cleland  as  a  jrreacher — a  preacher 

"Endowed  by  nature  and  by  learning  taught. 
To  move  assemblies." 

I  will  give  my  own  impressions.  To  do  this 
I  will  go  back  to  his  discourse  at  Glasgow  on 
Baptism,  more  than  21  years  ago.  It  was  a 
fine  morning  in  April,  in  a  large  and  crowded 
house.  lie  took  his  position  in  front  of  the 
pulpit.  In  beginning  his  address,  he  remarked, 
that  he  had  no  manuscript,  no  notes — nothing 
but  the  Bible — holding  up  in  his  hand  a  small 
Bible,  which  he  had  carried  from  my  house, 
which  I  now  have  before  me.  This  was  no 
boast  of  his  ability,  but  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  authority  of  God's  wTord,  and  of  this  alone, 
on  this  controverted  subject.  On  a  blank  leaf 
lie  had  written  "1  John  v:  8;"  under  this  a 
heart,  and  about  the  heart,  S.  B.  W.  Here  was 
the  visible  foundation  of  one  of  his  arguments 
in  favor  of  our  mode  of  Baptism.  The  argu- 
ment I  thought  a  beautiful  one,  but  less  for- 
cible than  others.  lie  no  doubt  considered  it 
logical.  lie  was  not  the  man  to  use  an  argu- 
ment merely  because  he  or  others  might  think 
it  plausible.     He  had  no  taste  for  sophistry — 


184  APPENDIX. 

never  indulged  in  clap-trap,  nor  the  ad  captan- 
dum  style  of  declamation.  I  refer  to  this  inci- 
dent as  characteristic  of  his  method,  as  a 
thinker  and  speaker.  I  have  heard  him  preach 
often.  I  never  saw  him  use  a  manuscript  or 
notes.  He  evidently  did  his  thinking  hefore  he 
went  into  the  pulpit,  and  had  his  main  points 
well  fixed  in  his  mind.  I  never  saw  him  re- 
duced to  the  necessity  of  talking  till  he  could 
think  of  something  to  say.  His  enunciation 
was  rapid — at  times  a  mountain  torrent.  There 
was  no  lack  of  words,  nor  of  the  right  kind  of 
words.  There  was  sometimes  an  apparent 
struggle  among  his  words  to  find  an  utterance. 

I  would  suppose  that  Dr.  Cleland  rarely 
wrote  out  his  sermons  at  full  length;  hut  he 
douhtless  made  a  wise  use  of  pen,  ink  and 
paper.  In  relation  to  the  passage  above  quoted, 
it  was  his  opinion  that  the  three  witnesses  on 
earth,  the  Spirit,  and  the  water,  and  the  blood, 
"  agree  in  one,"  in  the  manner  of  their  appli- 
cation, by  affusion — the  Spirit  poured  out,  the 
blood  sprinkled,  and  the  water  poured  or 
sprinkled.  But  in  preparing  to  handle  this 
argument  in  the  pulpit,  he  would  write  but 
little:  "1  John  v:  8,"  a  heart,  surrounded  with 
the  letters  "S.  B.  W."  With  these  hints,  he 
could  soon  arrange  his  thoughts. 

As  I  have  already  said,  he  was  possessed  of  a 


APPENDIX.  185 

retentive  memory.  Jle  was  very  familiar  with 
the  Bible,  could  quote  its  words  with  surprising 
readiness  and  accuracy.  The  great  secret  of 
his  popularity  and  success  in  preaching  was 
perhaps  owing  to  the  fact  that  his  sermons 
were  not  only  rich  in  thought,  but  highly  seas- 
oned with  the  word  of  God.  Had  he  any  thing 
to  say  about  depravity,  repentance,  faith,  etc., 
he  would  state  his  positions  with  great  clear- 
ness, and  then  establish  them  by  texts  to  the 
point. 

His  conversation  and  letters  were  often  point- 
ed or  adorned  with  similitudes  from  the  Bible. 
I  have  now  before  me  one  of  his  letters,  in  an- 
swer to  one  from  me,  in  which  I  had  complain- 
ed of  some  unreasonable  persecution.  lie  re- 
capitulates my  grievances,  and  comforts  me  by 
simply  adding,  "This  is  like  Samson  among 
the  Philistines,  sure  enough  !"  Knowing  how 
he  would  feel  and  look,  when  he  would  say 
such  a  thing,  it  was  enough  for  the  time,  at 
least,  to  put  me  in  a  good  humor. 

His  manners  in  the  pulpit  were  unosten- 
tatious— no  effort  at  display — no  air  of  superi- 
ority. When  he  had  stated  a  truth,  or  thrown 
out  an  argument,  he  never  seemed  to  feel,  or  to 
desire  his  hearers  to  feel — "That  is  something 
grand,  or  original,  of  which  no  one  had  ever 
before  dreamed."     His  gestures  were  simple — 


18t>  APPENDIX. 

none  of  the  arts  of  the  rhetorician — none  of 
the  great  sweeps  of  the  orator.  It  was  with 
hi ni  the  eloquence  of  truth  and  earnestness. 
He  did  not,  however,  stand  like  a  statue;  there 
was  necessarily  some  motion  of  the  hands, 
arms  and  body,  consequent  upon  the  hearings 
of  a  mighty  mind;  as  there  is  always  some 
motion  on  a  steamer,  when  there  is  a  powerful 
engine  working  within. 

His  preaching  was  full  of  pathos.  It  was 
moving  and  persuasive,  rather  than  startling  or 
alarming.  I  never  like  to  sit  up  about  the  pul- 
pit, or  in  the  presence  of  a  congregation,  and 
go  to  crying — it  is  regarded  as  unmanly — so 
childish  and  womanish.  I,  therefore,  soon 
learned,  after  hearing  Dr.  Cleland  preach,  that 
when  he  was  to  be  the  officiating  minister,  I 
must  fix  myself  so  that  I  could  put  my  head 
down,  or  cover  my  face  with  my  handkerchief. 
This  was  another  reason  of  his  popularity.  The 
people  like  to  listen  to  the  preacher  that  can 
make  them  "feel"  In  the  administration  of 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  he  was 
peculiarly  solemn  and  tender. 

There  are  great  men  at  the  East — men  of 
learning  and  eloquence — but  I  confess  my  par- 
tiality for  Western  oratory.  I  have  often  list- 
ened with  delight  to  Drs.  Blackburn,  Hender- 
son,  Xelson,  Allan,  etc.;   but   to  none   did  I 


APPENDIX.  187 

uniformly  listen  with  more  pleasure  and  profit 
than  to  Dr.  Cleland. 

He  was  also  gifted  as  a  writer.  lie  had  this 
reputation  long  before  I  knew  him  personally. 
Much  that  he  has  written  was  never  put  in  a 
permanent  form.  lie  was,  I  think,  a  large  con- 
tributor to  the  newspaper  and  periodical  liter- 
ature of  his  day — to  such  works  as  the  Calvin- 
istic  Magazine,  Presbyterian  Advocate,  Pedo- 
baptist,  etc.  Though  he  wielded  an  able  pen, 
he  seemed  not,  even  in  this,  to  be  ambitious,  or 
desirous  of  applause.  For  the  most  part,  a 
modest  little  "C."  was  all  that  could  surest  to 

OCT 

his  friends  that  he  was  the  author.  But  when- 
ever you  found  an  essay  over  "C."  you  found 
an  essay  not  only  readable,  but  ably  written. 
lie  often  wrote  not  usin^  even  the  "  0."  I  have 
now  before  me  a  large  pamphlet  of  102  pages 
on  the  "Excision  and  Division  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  By  an  Old  Disciple."  It  is  an 
able  work.  I  always  supposed  that  Dr.  Cle- 
land was  that  "Old  Disciple."  The  internal 
evidence  is,  to  my  mind,  strong  and  irresistible. 
However  creditable  such  works,  he  cared  not 
for  the  honor — he  aimed  at  the  triumph  of 
truth.  As  a  writer  he  had  a  clear  conception 
of  what  he  wanted  to  say,  and  could  say  it  in 
few,  plain,  and  forcible  words. 

He  was  fond  of  peace — so  much  so  that  I 


188  APPENDIX. 

sometimes  was  almost  ready  to  regard  him  as 
timid.  But  he  was  not  tirqjd — he  was  cautious, 
and  afraid  to  do  wrong.  When,  however,  duty 
was  plain,  no  man  was  more  ready  to  act.  He 
was  mild,  yet  rigid  in  his  adherence  to  prin- 
ciple. He  would  follow  the  leadings  of  con- 
science— no  allurements  or  sacrifices  could  move 
him. 

Had  he  been  fond  of  strife,  and  could  he 
have  condescended  to  the  tricks  of  the  tactician, 
he  might  have  distinguished  himself  as  a  con- 
troversialist. But  he  was  no  admirer  of  even 
theological  pugilists,  and  did  not  desire  to  have 
such  a  reputation.  His  letters  to  Stone — his 
strictures  on  Gampbellisrn — his  work  on  Bap- 
tism— his  Old  Disciple,  etc.,  evince  talent  for 
controversy.  But  he  had  little  taste  for  such 
work.  What  he  did,  his  conscience  hid  him 
dc — what  he  did  was  a  tribute  laid  upon  the 
altar  of  truth.  When  forced  to  come  out,  he 
was  not  harsh,  vindictive,  nor  cruel.  "  Soft 
words  and  hard  arguments,"  was  a  favorite 
phrase  with  him.  He  would  rather  suffer 
wrong  than  do  wrong. 

lie  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  people,  and 
was  popular,  not  only  with  Presbyterians,  but 
with  all  orthodox  denominations.  Few  men  of 
so  much  greatness  and  goodness  have  encoun- 
tered  less   hatred.     If  he   would   occasionally 


APPENDIX.  189 

hear  that  some  minister  or  editor  had  men- 
tioned his  name,  and  called  in  question  his 
honesty,  consistency,  or  orthodoxy,  it  would 
hurt  his  feelings  more  than  his  reputation.  He 
was  not  insensible  to  censure ;  but  he  did  not 
go  to  crying  and  scolding,  and  insisting  that  he 
was  the  worst  persecuted  of  all  God's  servants. 
He  was  too  magnanimous  for  that.  If  he  con- 
descended to  speak  of  such  a  thing,  it  would  be 

about  thus  :  "  Mr. has  put  a  patch  dri  my 

back,  and  he  ought  to  take  it  off." 

He  stood  high  in  the  confidence  and  esteem  of 
Q-en.  Jaekson,  and  many  of  the  leading  politicians 
of  his  day.  And  in  all  the  high  political  excite- 
ments of  the  last  half  century,  he  has  been  sin- 
gularly fortunate  as  a  man  of  peace  and  pru- 
dence. In  one  letter  to  me  ;  and,  I  think,  only 
one,  did  he  ever  mention  politics.  In  that,  he 
says,  "  I  never  discussed  politics,  either  in  or  out 
of  the  pulpit ;  never  excited  or  offended  an  op- 
ponent that  I  know  of;  read  every  Presiden- 
tial Message,  from  Jefferson's  Inaugural  to  the 
present  time  ;  always  a  Democrat  on  principle  ; 
1  Princijpia  non  homines,'  my  uniform  and  un- 
varying creed  ;  no  political  partisan  ;  no  hobby 
rider,  etc. ;  always  get  along  smoothly  and 
peaceably  ;  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  respected  by 
those  opposed  to  me  in  political  sentiments." 

Since  his  death  some   writer    says    he   was 


L90  APPENDIX. 

"  serious."  If  by  this  was  meant  that  he  was 
free  from  levity,  it  is  correct.  But,  if  the  writer 
meant  that  he  was  not  cheerful,  it  is  a  mistake. 
He  was  every  where  dignified,  yet  plain  and 
easy  in  his  manners.  He  was  not  only  cheerful, 
but  had  a  good  share  of  humor;  was  fond  of 
a  good  story,  and  could  tell  an  anecdote  well 
himself.  His  friends  will  say,  they  found  him 
always  quite  companionable. 

In  4he  abundance  of  his  good  humor,  he 
would  sometimes  use  expressions  that  nobody 
else  would  dare  to  use.  It  was  hard  to  get  him  to 
preach  more  than  his  share  at  Presbytery  or 
Synod.  When  excused,  he  would  add,  "  I 
would  rather  preach  to  any  other  kind  of  sin- 
ners than  to  reverend  sinners,"  laying  emphasis 
upon  the  "  reverend,"  and  by  his  look  and  a 
slight  twitch,  giving  it  a  double  meaning. 
When  he  would  hear  of  some  unwise  thing  done 
by  a  Presbyterian,  or  by  a  Presbyterian  bod}', 
he  would  say,  "  well,  Presbyterian  fools  are  the 
biggest  fools  in  the  world.'7  All  such  pithy  ex- 
pressions would  come  from  him  with  such  an 
unction  that  no  one  was  offended,  their  keen- 
ness being  all  covered  over  with  pleasantry. 

I  will  give  now  only  one  of  many  evidences  of 
the  high  esteem  in  which  Dr.  Cleland  was  held  by 
those  who  knew  him  best.  Before  we  parted 
last,  near  Baltimore,  he  told  me  he  was  going 


APPENDIX.  L91 

to  Saratoga,  at  the  request  of  Ohancelor  Wal- 
worth and  his  lady,  to  administer,  in  their 
family,  the  ordinance  of  baptism*  I  learned 
from  him,  that  there  were  many  links  in  that 
long  and  unbroken  chain  of  attachment.  When 
Mrs.  W.  was  an  infant,  he  had  baptized  her. 
She  united  with  the  church  under  his  minis- 
try. Her  first  husband  was  the  gallant  Col. 
Hardin,  who  fell  in  the  Mexican  war.  In  her 
first  and  second  marriage  Dr.  C.  was  the  offici- 
ating clergyman.  And  now  he  goes  all  the  way 
to  Saratoga,  at  the  request  of  the  parents,  to 
administer  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  and  to  re- 
ceive into  the  visible  family  of  the  Savior  one 
of  the  dear  pledges  of  their  love. 

Few  ministers  have  traveled  further  to  solem- 
nize the  rites  of  matrimony,*  administer  the 
ordinance  of  baptism,  and  preach  funeral  ser- 
mons, than  he.  This  shows  the  strong  hold  he 
had  on  the  confidence  and  affections  of  his 
friends,  alike  creditable  to  him  and  them. 

Such  a  man  is  not  ashamed  to  live,  nor  afraid 
to  die.  The  last  letter  I  received  from  him  was 
dated  April  6, 1857,  a  few  months  before  his 
death,  and  twenty-three  years  to  a  day,  since  he 


*  Dr.  C.  kept  an  accurate  list  of  all  the  marriages  ever 
solemnized  by  him — in  all,  712:  together  with  the  amount  of 
fees  paid  by  each.  "Total,  $2,875  50."  Every  present  that 
he  ever  received,  even  down  to  the  widow's  mite,  is  here  faith- 
fully recorded,  and  was  gratefully  remembeied. — [V.V/.v 


192  APPENDIX. 

delivered  the  address  on  baptism,  to  which  I 
have  referred  at  some  length.  In  the  latter 
part  of  this  letter,  after  saying,  "Our  little  Sy- 
nod is  weak,  and  can  scarcely  stand,  etc.,"  he 
closes  in  these  words,  "  I  wish  you  and  some 
former  brethren  were  back  again  in  Old  Ken- 
tuck,  if  it  suited.  What  will  become  of  us,  the 
good  Lord  only  knows.  I  have  not  long  to  stay, 
and  I  feel  my  latter  end  approaching.  All  is  well" 
I  have  now  given  you  some  "facts  and  im- 
pressions "  of  your  father.  I  have  guarded 
against  fulsome,  unmeaning  eulogy.  In  speak- 
ing of  his  intellectual  endowments,  his  claims 
to  the  possession  of  talents  of  a  high  order,  I 
might,  consistently,  have  used  stronger  expres- 
sions. But,  in  speaking  of  him,  I  would  not 
indulge  in  gross  adulation  or  unqualified  pane- 
gyric ;  if,  for  no  other  reason,  because,  if  living, 
it  would  be  offensive  to  him.  In  what  I  have 
said  of  him,  no  one,  who  knew  him,  will  say 
that  I  am  extravagant  in  my  estimate  of  his 
abilities  or  excellence.  He  sighed  not  for  dis- 
tinction, he  cared  not  for  popular  applause ; 
and,  I  have  no  doubt,  you  will  find  from  the 
scanty  materials  he  has' left  his  biographer, 
that  he  was  unusually  indifferent  to  posthu- 
mous fame.  He  had  all  the  elements  of  great- 
ness, but  he  was  destitute  of  the  ambition  to  be 
great. 


APPENDIX.  193 

But  his  work  is  done,  and  he  has  gone  to  his 
reward.  The  place  where  were  laid  the  re- 
mains of  Dr.  Clehmd  will  long  be  a  place  dear 
to  many  a  pilgrim  ;  and  his  grave  will  long  be 
covered  with  garlands  of  Christian  affection. 
Yours,  etc, 

H.  WOODS. 

[The  following  letter  is  from  Rev.  James 
Barnes,  D.  D.,  Clinton  county,  Mo.  Dr.  Barnes 
was  one  of  the  first  students  of  Theology  un- 
der Dr.  Cleland,  and  for  many  years  they  were 
co-laborers  in  the  same  vineyard  of  the  Lord.] 

My  Dear  Brother:  Be  assured  that  it  will 
afford  me  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  furnish 
some  facts  connected  with  the  life  and  labors  of 
your  beloved  and  venerated  father,  now  an 
heir  of  glory.  Whatever  I  may  be  able  to 
call  to  mind  respecting  him,  I  shall  record  it  as 
an  expression  of  grateful  remembrance  to  one 
to  whom  I  am  deeply  indebted  for  what  I  am, 
as  a  Christian  (though  less  than  the  least  of 
all),  and  as  a  minister  of  the  everlasting  gospel. 

My  first  acquaintance  with  my  beloved  fa- 
ther in  the  Lord,  was  in  the  early  part  of  the 
year  1807.  I  was  then  a  youth  of  about  seven- 
teen years.  The  first  time  I  ever  heard  the 
delightful  sound  of  the  gospel  was  from  his 
lip3,  about  the  period  above  mentioned.  He 
1* 


194  APPENDIX. 

preached  at  that  time  once  a  month  in  Spring- 
field, where  I  resided,  though  not  regularly, 
as  his  labors  were  at  times  in  very  great  demand. 
He  was  the  most  acceptable  preacher  then  in 
Kentucky.  His  labors  were  wonderfully  bless- 
ed in  the  conversion  of  souls.  In  the  month  of 
June,  1809,  I  was  received  by  him  into  the 
communion  of  the  Church.  From  that  time 
until  he  removed  into  Mercer  county  (1813)  he 
was  my  pastor,  my  adviser  and  kind  friend. 
During  the  year  1815, 1  lived  in  his  family,  and 
was  treated  as  his  son  ;  enjoyed  his  excellent 
ministrations,  and  commenced  the  study  of 
Theology.  It  was  by  his  kind  exertions  that 
I  was  enabled  to  spend  the  two  following  years 
at  Princeton  Theological  Seminary.  After  my 
return  to  Kentucky,  by  his  fatherly  advice,  I 
was  induced  to  take  the  pastoral  oversight  of 
the  united  congregations  of  Lancaster  and 
Paint  Lick,  in  the  fall  of  1818.  In  the  fall  of 
1819  I  was  ordained,  and  installed  pastor  over 
said  churches,  on  which  occasion  your  father 
presided.  During  these  eighteen  years  I  occa- 
sionally enjoyed  the  privilege  of  being  assisted 
by  him  on  sacramental  occasions.  It  was  un- 
der his  faithful  administrations,  together  with 
Brother  S.  K.  Sweecl,  that  a  most  precious  re- 
vival* commenced  in  Paint  Lick  church,  in  the 
summer  of  1826,  which  continued  for  two  years, 


APPENDIX. 

and  which  resulted  in  the  conversion  of  many 
precious  souls  to  God.  His  preaching  was 
plain,  scriptural,  evangelical,  spiritual  and  prac- 
tical. His  sermons  were  always  filled  with 
Scripture  quotations,  and  he  was  always  par- 
ticular in  giving  both  chapter  and  verse.  He 
knew  the  Scriptures  almost  by  heart.  He 
was  a  living  concordance.  "  He  was  mighty  in 
the  Scriptures."  He  possessed  the  wonderful 
power  of  condensing  a  whole  body  of  divinity 
in  a  single  discourse.  Xor  did  he  present  be- 
fore the  people  the  dead  dry  bones  of  a  hide- 
ous skeleton,  but  clothed  with  flesh,  beautiful 
for  its  compactness  and  symmetry,  and  animated 
with  joyous  life.  He  sometimes  used  brief 
selections,  but  never  heard  him  read  a  sermon. 
I  never  heard  a  man  who  had  a  more  complete 
control  over  the  feelings  of  his  audience,  and 
that  without  any  special  effort  to  awaken  their 
sympathies.  For  many  years  I  never  sat  un- 
der one  of  his  excellent  sermons  without  being 
deeply  affected  myself,  and  witnessing  a  little 
effect  upon  the  whole  congregation.  He  never 
daubed  the  unbeliever  with  untempered  mor- 
tar ;  but  was  a  son  of  thunder  to  the  guilty, 
and  of  consolation  to  the  feeble-minded.  His 
preaching  was  instructive  to  the  ignorant;  en- 
couraging to  the  timid,  and  edifying  to  the  be- 
liever. 


196  APPENDIX. 

As  a  pastor,  as  far  as  domestic  duties  and 
missionary  calls  would  allow,  he  was  faithful 
to  those  under  his  immediate  charge.  Much  of 
Dr.  Cleland's  ministerial  life  was  spent  in  ardu- 
ous labors  out  of  the  bounds  of  his  own  con- 
gregation. 

At  that  time  there  were  but  few  faithful  min- 
isters of  the  Word,  and  calls  for  good  faithful 
preachers  were  both  numerous  and  urgent. 
Soon  ofter  he  entered  the  ministry,  the  Pela- 
gian, Arian,  Socinian  and  Shaker  heresies  and 
defections  threatened  the  overthrow  of  the 
churches  in  Kentucky.  These  soul-destroying 
heresies  and  apostacies  threw  a  great  deal  of 
missionary  labor  into  the  hands  of  this  faithful 
servant  of  Christ.  Many  churches  in  this  State 
were  torn  into  fragments.  Those  who  stood 
firmly  by  the  faith  of  their  fathers  called  loudly 
and  earnestly  for  help.  None  were  more  ready 
to  listen  to  these  calls  than  Dr.  Cleland;  and 
none  rendered  more  efficient  service  in  helping 
to  roll  back  this  desolating  tide  than  he. 

About  this  time  the  Cumberland  Presbyte- 
rians broke  off  from  our  denomination.  Their 
desertion  from  our  ranks  made  a  wide-spread 
destitution  of  our  ministrations  in  southwest- 
ern Kentucky,  which  still  further  increased 
the  demand  for  missionary  labor.  Mr.  Cleland 
went  often  to  that  region  of  the  country  on 


APPENDIX.  191 

missionary  tours.  These  missionary  labors 
were  discharged  without  the  prospect  of  pecu- 
niary remuneration  ;  while,  at  the  same  time, 
subjecting  the  faithful  missionary  to  severe  pri- 
vations and  hardships. 

Reversing  a  little  the  order  suggested  in  your 
letter,  I  proceed  to  state  a  few  particulars  with 
reference  to  our  dear  father  as  a  man  and  a 
Christian.  We  may  say  of  him  what  was  said 
of  Barnabas  ;  "  He  was  a  good  man,  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith,  and  much  people 
were  added  to  the  Lord."  Although  his  liter- 
ary advantages  were  limited ;  yet,  all  things 
considered,  he  was  evidently  a  man  of  more 
than  ordinary  abilities.  He  possessed  a  discrim- 
inating mind,  a  clear  and  quick  understanding, 
sound  and  solid  judgment,  a  retentive  memory 
and  a  lively  imagination.  He  possessed  cheer- 
fulness without  levity,  sobriety  without  morose- 
ness,  firmness  without  stubbornness,  and  dig- 
nity without  haughtiness. 

As  a  man  of  business  he  was  prompt,  active, 
conscientious  ;  and,  above  all  men  I  ever  knew, 
prudent.  Prudence,  he  always  taught  his  stu- 
dents, next  to  piety,  was  one  of  the  cardinal 
virtues  essential  to  a  usefulness  in  the  minister. 
He  kept  every  thing  in  perfect  order  about  him. 
He  could  rise  at  the  hour  of  midnight,  and 
without  a  light,  lay  his  hand  on  any  book  in 


198  APPENDIX. 

the  library.  He  had  a  place  for  every  thing, 
and  every  thing  in  its  place. 

The  social  qualities  of  our  kind  father  were 
such  as  to  warmly  attach  to  him  a  large  circle 
of  devoted  friends,  both  aged  and  young,  rich 
and  poor,  bond  and  free.  And  no  one,  who 
has  even  for  a  short  time  been  an  inmate  of 
his  kind  family,  but  was  impressed  with  the 
belief  that  real  hospitality  and  the  law  of  kind- 
ness reigned  there.  His  ministerial  brethren 
always  esteemed  it  a  delightful  privilege  to  en- 
joy his  society,  which  was  always  both  animat- 
ing and  instructive. 

But,  before  I  close  this  communication,  I  feel 
it  a  privilege  to  pay  an  unfeigned  tribute  of 
justly  merited  respect  to  the  memory  of  her 
who  was  the  partner  of  his  joys  and  sorrows 
for  more  than  half  a  century.  Daring  the  year 
that  I  was  an  inmate  of  Dr.  Cleland's  house, 
and  during  the  period  of  forty  years  in  which 
I  occasionally  visited  the  house,  if  that  most 
excellent  mother  in  Israel  was  ever  out  of  tem- 
per, or  in  a  passion,  I  never  discovered  it, 
either  in  her  looks,  words,  or  actions.  She  was 
always  the  same  peaceful,  amiable,  and  affec- 
tionate wife,  the  same  warm-hearted  friend,  the 
same  active,  self-denying  and  devout  Christian. 
I  can  truly  say,  that  among  all  the  clergy- 
men's families  I  have  known  in  the  last  fifty 


APPENDIX.  199 

years,  I  have  never  become  acquainted,  with 
one  who  was  better  suited  to  the  station 
she  occupied  than  mother  Cleland.  Ad  i 
lent  help-meet  to  her  husband;  a  blessing  to 
her  family  and  neighborhood,  and  an  ornament 
to  the  church  of  God.  Few  ministers  and 
their  wives  have  lived  so  long  in  the  blessed 
service  of  their  Lord,  and  have  sustained  a  more 
exalted  Christian  character  than  Dr.  Cleland 
and  his  most  excellent  wife. 

They  are   now,  we   do  most   firmly  believe, 
justified  spirits  made  perfect,  reunited   in  the 
blissful  presence  of  our  adored    Redeemer,  in 
his  high  and  holy  service  in  glory  forever. 
Yours  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord, 

JAMES  BARKES. 


DUE  DATE 

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